Cassone with Boccaccio story
Type:
Boxes
Date:
Late fourteenth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Italy
Dimensions:
45.5 × 121.5 cm
Description:
A cassone is a wooden chest for storing textiles and clothing. Painted cassoni (plural) were often commissioned as marriage gifts for late medieval (and Renaissance) Italian households. They would be carried in processions from the wedding ceremony to the bride's home, making the domestic object also a public one.
This example is richly decorated with scenes from Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–53), a vernacular compilation that supposedly records stories narrated by a group of friends who escaped from the Black Death by gathering in a villa outside Florence and told tales to pass the time. The story here, told on the tenth day, follows Saladin—Salah al-Din, the twelfth-century Ayyubid ruler—who in Boccaccio is the sultan of Babylon, meaning Egypt. Saladin supposedly traveled to Europe disguised as a merchant to see how Christians were preparing for the Third Crusade. He meets a nobleman near Pavia named Torello, who welcomes Saladin and his companions (scene 1). Torello's wife gives the visitors new clothing (scene 2), and, when Torello leaves for the crusades soon after, his wife gives him a ring (scene 3) and the promise that she will not marry anyone else for a year, a month, and a day after Torello's departure. Not shown on the cassone is the end of Boccaccio's tale: Torello is captured, made a falconer in Egypt, and then recognized and freed by Saladin. He is miraculously transported home to Italy just in time to stop his wife from remarrying once she recognizes the ring. The love story with a happy ending is appropriate for a marriage chest.
This cassone is in the Musei Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (inv. 160 Mobili antichi). Its artist is known as the Master of Charles of Durazzo because he also painted a cassone at the Metropolitan Museum of Art showing the conquest of Naples by Charles III of Durazzo in 1381. This artist was active in Florence between ca. 1370 and 1420.
This example is richly decorated with scenes from Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–53), a vernacular compilation that supposedly records stories narrated by a group of friends who escaped from the Black Death by gathering in a villa outside Florence and told tales to pass the time. The story here, told on the tenth day, follows Saladin—Salah al-Din, the twelfth-century Ayyubid ruler—who in Boccaccio is the sultan of Babylon, meaning Egypt. Saladin supposedly traveled to Europe disguised as a merchant to see how Christians were preparing for the Third Crusade. He meets a nobleman near Pavia named Torello, who welcomes Saladin and his companions (scene 1). Torello's wife gives the visitors new clothing (scene 2), and, when Torello leaves for the crusades soon after, his wife gives him a ring (scene 3) and the promise that she will not marry anyone else for a year, a month, and a day after Torello's departure. Not shown on the cassone is the end of Boccaccio's tale: Torello is captured, made a falconer in Egypt, and then recognized and freed by Saladin. He is miraculously transported home to Italy just in time to stop his wife from remarrying once she recognizes the ring. The love story with a happy ending is appropriate for a marriage chest.
This cassone is in the Musei Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (inv. 160 Mobili antichi). Its artist is known as the Master of Charles of Durazzo because he also painted a cassone at the Metropolitan Museum of Art showing the conquest of Naples by Charles III of Durazzo in 1381. This artist was active in Florence between ca. 1370 and 1420.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
10
Repository and Online Resources:
• See a cassone by the same artist here (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 07.120.1).
Image Credits:
Linda Safran
