Box with Lady Minne
German, ca. 1325-50
Oak, tempera, and wrought-iron mounts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund and The Cloisters Collection, by exchange, 1950 (50.141)
Presumably used for safeguarding tokens of affection, this box shows Lady Minne (a German personification of love) in the role of a hunter, bending the bow that will propel her barbed arrows into a man's heart, which he in turn gives to her. I am dubious that the Met gendered the lover correctly here but welcome commentary.
I just recently saw the Gender/Sex in the Middle Ages exhibit at the Cloisters, which was smaller than hoped for. But anyhow, for New Year's, I give you the energy of Frau Minne, patron goddess? of courtly love, taking the heart from a lover whom she has pierced with her arrows. #LastChristmas