Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264)

The unusually large size of the piece allows a wide range of the repertoire of popular scenes from different literary sources in French Gothic art to be shown, which display a variety of medieval attitudes to love and the role of women: "Themes such as lust and chastity, folly and wisdom are juxtaposed in a series of non-connected scenes".

), at the left on the lid, is a fanciful scene of courtly romance, where knights attack a castle defended by ladies and a cupid, with both sides throwing roses as missiles.

[8] But such a scene was staged and acted out by "many gentlemen and twelve of the fairest and gayest ladies of Padua" as part of a festival at Treviso in 1214, a century earlier.

[11] This is the only scene on the lid that differs in the British Museum and Paris caskets, where the siege of the castle continues in the section at furthest right.

[13] Phyllis riding Aristotle is the "quintessential image from the Power of Women topos", which was beginning its long career in art at this time.

[16] The sword bridge features in Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes, and the perilous bed in his Perceval, the Story of the Grail.

Both the Walters and British Museum caskets have the same scenes and compositions here, which both depart from the literary sources by having the rain of swords falling not only on Gawain on the bed, but also on Lancelot on the bridge, suggesting that the ivory-carver's or designer's contact with the literature was indirect.