Hexagonal Marriage Casket with the Story of Paris
Embriachi workshop · c. 1400
The six-sided casket rises to a tall lid inlaid at the top with geometric rosettes and crowned by a hexagonal knob that carries a metal handle. Around the lower part of the lid, curved strips of bone are carved with winged putti against foliage: those above the lock hold shields once painted with the arms of the bride and groom, for this was a marriage gift; the others hold an arrow or an apple, or grab each other by the arm. On each side, framed by bands of marquetry, carved plaques tell the story of Paris, the Trojan prince whose judgement between three goddesses, with an apple as prize, suited a wedding casket because it turned on beauty and love.
The Embriachi family workshop, active in Florence and then Venice around fourteen hundred, produced such caskets in quantity for a wealthy clientele across Europe, using bone rather than costly ivory. Alexandre-Charles Sauvageot bought this one in eighteen forty one for four hundred and seventy two francs and fifty centimes, plus thirty francs for restoration and seven for a key, as his purchase book records, and gave it to the Louvre with his collection in eighteen fifty six.
Did You Know? Sauvageot's account book notes that the casket cost him seven francs more for a bronze key than for the silk lining he added.
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