French, Paris, circa 1300

Noble collection, France, since the late 19th/ early 20th century;
thence by descent

Overall, the condition of the ivory is very good, with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There are several small holes for the original mounts of the casket and the lockplate, these are visible to the front and the back. There is yellowing to the ivory, particularly around these areas, especially to the lockplate. There is stable splitting to the ivory, consistent with the material, particularly around the mouldings and in the stag. There are minor chips and abrasions, in particular to the right and left edges. There is an original indent in the upper edge of the ivory, for the lock clasp. There is a small, recently filled, hole to the underside, probably for testing purposes. There are openings in the far edges of the right and left panels, which may be intentional, or may be small losses. The ivory is yellower to the back, and there are some dark stains. There are a few further minor scratches to the sides and the reverse.
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Only two complete medieval ivory caskets illustrating the Life of Saint Eustace are recorded in existence today, with a surviving lid in the Bargello Museum providing evidence of another, now incomplete example. The present relief, which shows the most significant stage in the cycle and would have formed the front panel to one such casket, represents a rare and important survival.

The Legend of Saint Eustace enjoyed considerable popularity in the Middle Ages. Brought to a wide audience through Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend of circa 1260, it tells the fantastical fate of a Christian knight, whose faith supports him through a succession of great personal misfortunes, culminating in his martyrdom together with that of his family, on the instruction of the Emperor Hadrian. By the fourteenth century, the cult had developed to the extent that Eustace became regarded as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, whose intercession was deemed to be particularly effective. Thereafter the cult declined, being replaced in part by that of the eighth-century Bishop of Maastricht, Saint Hubert, to whom the legend of the mystic apparition between the horns of a stag was transferred.

In the visual arts, pictorial cycles of the Life of Saint Eustace appeared throughout Europe, but perhaps most prominently in France. The subject was particularly popular in the medium of stained glass, but extended to various object types and media, including stone altarpieces, manuscript illuminations, and metalwork (see Williamson and Davies, op. cit., p. 486).

Scenes depicting the Saint are occasionally found in medieval ivory carvings, being usually limited to the moment of his conversion (see, for example, a casket in the Musée du Louvre, inv. no. OA 122). The same is the subject of the present panel, which would have formed the centrepiece of a casket dedicated to the saint’s Life. To the left, Eustace is seen on horseback blowing into a horn, accompanied by his hunting dogs. The centre of the relief shows Eustace kneeling in front of a stag, between whose antlers appears a vision of Christ, prompting his conversion. As Glyn Davies has noted, the placement of the conversion scene around the lock plate results in a particularly ‘striking’ illustration of this key moment in the Saint's life (op. cit., p. 485). The intimate scene to the right shows the conversion of Theopista, Eustace’s wife, through the saint himself.

The finer of the two complete caskets depicting the Life of Saint Eustace is the exemplar formerly in the Astor collection at Hever Castle, sold in these rooms on 6 May 1983, and now in a private collection in New York. The panel at its front is near-identical to the present plaque in its iconography, and similarly refined in the quality of its carving. Incorporating a complete set of carved ivory plaques within later metal mounts, the Hever Castle casket provides us with an impression of the now-lost casket to which the present relief once belonged. Depicting a complex iconography, the sides and lid of the Hever Castle casket recount various subsequent events in the legend of the saint, including his family’s baptism, their flight from Rome, the brutal loss of Eustace’s sons, and finally the family’s martyrdom ordered by the Emperor, ending in the ascent of the saint’s soul into heaven.

A second, less refined casket devoted to the same subject is preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. A.45-1935). The V&A casket differs from the Hever Castle example and the present plaque not only in stylistic aspects, but in variations in the iconography; notably, the stag’s head in the conversion scene is depicted in a profile view, with the head of Christ appearing somewhat awkwardly above. Less elaborate than that of the Hever Castle casket, the lid of the V&A example includes only a single register, with scenes not directly related to the saint’s Life. It thus also contrasts with an ivory casket lid at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (inv. no. 116 C), which shows scenes relating to Saint Eustace in two registers and has so far represented the sole piece of evidence for the existence of a third casket of this type. The possibility that the present plaque could form a second piece from this same casket is tantalising; however, there are some stylistic variations between the two panels.

The complete caskets in London and New York and the lid in Florence have been localised in the prominent ivory carving centre of Paris, and dated to the first half of the 14th century. A slightly earlier dating can be proposed for the present relief, whose refined carving and balanced arrangement of figures compare favourably to Parisian ivories from this period. Compare three ivory panels from a casket in the Louvre, dated to circa 1250-1270 (inv. no. OA 2589). Carved with remarkable regularity from a thick, long slab of ivory, the plaque was clearly part of a costly commission. While the precise purpose of caskets of the present type remains unclear, it is thought unlikely that all examples with a religious iconography were intended for an ecclesiastical or monastic context (Williamson and Davies, op. cit., p. 483). Instead, their function may have been similar to that of the numerous secular ivory caskets with scenes of courtship, which were probably used for the exchange of amorous gifts. Caskets with religious imagery owned by lay individuals may have had a two-fold purpose as devotional aides and containers of precious items.

RELATED LITERATURE
R. Koechlin, Les Ivoires gothiques français, Paris, 1924, no. 255; D. Gaborit-Chopin (ed.), Ivoires médiévaux, Ve-XVe siècle, cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2003, pp. 361-363; P. Williamson and G. Davies, Medieval Ivory Carvings: 1200-1550, cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2014, Part I, pp. 483-489

The present lot is offered with a Radiocarbon dating measurement report (ref. no. ETH 65601) prepared by ETH Zurich for QED Laboratoire, Aix-en-Provence, dated 31 January 2016, which states that the ivory dates between 985 and 1151.