2-727-303 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Door and Frame, late 1400s. This elaborately carved door and frame was intended for use in a protected interior space as suggested by the delicate open tracery above and its use of polychromy. Though its original context is unknown, the door's placement may have been within either a domestic or ecclesiastical building. The inscription in Old French-Mal vit qui ne mande-is enigmatic and has been suggested to translate roughly as "He lives badly who does not ask." The source of the inscription is unclear but may have been a proverb or motto current during the time.