Italy, Florence, circa 1470

With Stefano Bardini, Florence, until 1907;

Collection of Prince Johannes II von Liechtenstein;

Mödling 1907 - Vienna 1909;

Mödling 1911 - Alserbachpalais, Vienna 1922;

Amsterdam, Christie's, 1 April 2008, lot 24;

With Blumka Gallery, New York, 9 February 2015;

From whom acquired.

Cassoni, or large, chests popular in Italy from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, were often commissioned by grooms as gifts for their betrothed and were embellished with both families' coats of arms, like the present piece. Their popularity led to the establishment of specialized workshops devoted to their production, in which important artists were often engaged to create the painted or carved decoration, which frequently featured allegorical, historical, or religious narratives.

The present cassone panel is decorated with two armorial devices, surrounded by cornucopiae filled with fruit, and painted with peacocks, pheasants, and various flora and fauna. This cassone is cited by Paul Schubring in his book Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Früh-Renaissance,¹ where he describes it as incorporating a rich floral ground with scattered decoration featuring guinea fowl and peacocks at the center, on the right and left are two large coats of arms, around which floral horns with luxuriant bunches of flowers are arranged, on the left is the rising Marzocco [perhaps denoting the Gianfigliazzi family], on the right a man’s head, above him the moon and star [perhaps denoting the Andrei family].

Another cassone, also decorated with two heraldic shields set against a ground of flowers and animals, is preserved in the collection of Palazzo Venezia (accession no. 10716). That object was commissioned for a wedding within the Federici family of Val Camonica, whose coat of arms is prominently displayed.

¹P. Schubring, Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance. Ein Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento, Leipzig 1915, p. 234, no. 73, pl. XI.