The Trente casket

The casket is part of a group of objects called “ Sicolo-Arab ivories” amounting to about two hundred pieces (rectangular or elliptical boxes, pyxides, liturgical combs, crucifixes). They mostly come from the mediaeval treasuries of Europe, yet their decoration is rich in features typical of Islamic art : Arabic inscriptions, musicians, exotic animals, hunting scenes and arabesques mingling sometimes with figures belonging to the Christian iconographic domain. These elements lead one to suppose that they were produced in workshops halfway between East and West.

The Trente casket is composed of thin ivory plates fixed to a wooden structure. Hinges of gilt copper reinforce the corners and link the lid to the back wall. On the front face are two medallions showing a horseman with a falcon on his forearm and a dog near the horse’s hooves. Pairs of birds are arranged outside the medallions.

The back face is made up of three medallions : on the sides, slender birds are addorsed with their long tails crossing; they hold a plant in their beaks which completes the symmetry of the scene. The central medallion contains two peacocks shown in profile, with their tails raised, separated by a palm tree that is cleverly curved over to mask the joint between the two ivory plates. Birds and stylized rosettes cover the surrounding surfaces. The decorative theme is the same on the short sides; in the centre two peacocks fan out their tails horizontally.

The paintwork on the lid is in bad condition. There are five medallions : two horsemen, echoing the theme on the front face of the chest, two peacocks with their necks intertwined, with on the right and left an eagle attacking a gazelle. Outside the medallions there are two peacocks, some birds and some plants, which serve to hide the joins between the ivory plaques. The words of profane love that run round the rim of the lid, written in Naskhi script and taken from the Thousand and One Nights, suggest that the Treasury of Trente Cathedral was not the chest’s original destination.    

Critics since the beginning of the twentieth century have been principally interested in the provenance of these ivories: they were Irano-Persian in Lauer’s view, Syrian in Diez’, while Kühnel was the first to formulate the thesis that they were the issue of a production peculiar to Norman Sicily, still marked by the artistic heritage of Muslim domination. This hypothesis was accepted by Ferrandis, Cott, Pinder-Wilson and Scerrato, whereas Monneret de Villard identified the origin of the ivories as Mesopotamia or Persia. Today it is generally agreed that they were mass produced in Southern Italy, but not necessarily in Sicily. The question was re-assessed in a recent international conference[1]: although attention remains focussed on the paintings, new interest has been shown in the methods of fabrication, in the materials used, in the problems of chronology and in the purpose of the ivories. Some have gone further, and tried to distinguish stylistic sub-groupings within the production, corresponding to different workshops or different chronological phases. Thus the Trente casket has been likened to a series of objects, amongst which is the one kept in the Cluny Museum in Paris. The striking resemblance suggests that they come from the same workshop. In terms of date, Pinder-Wilson would put it in the first half of the thirteenth century.

The questions raised are still a long way from finding definite answers. Nevertheless these objects attest, if further evidence is required, to the circulation in the Mediterranean (and in Europe), if not of the creators themselves, then at least to the products and artistic models of the Muslim world.