A cassone was a large, lavishly decorated chest of a kind made in Italy from the 14th century to the end of the 16th century. Wealthy households needed many chests for clothes and other valuables. They were usually commissioned in pairs for a newly married couple and were ordered, together with other furnishings, by the groom. Florence was the main centre of production, though they were also produced in Siena. This example is painted with a scene from the legend of Horatius Cocles defending the Sublician Bridge. According to the Roman poets and historians, he was a Roman soldier whose bravery in 507 BC saved Rome from capture by the Etruscan forces. He was the sole defender of the Sublician bridge, which the Etruscan soldiers threatened to cross. He successfully held them at bay, while his companions demolished the bridge behind him. When the bridge fell, he plunged into the Tiber and swam to safety.
Physical description
Cassone Panel painted with the scene of Horatius Cocles defending the Sublician Bridge.
Place of Origin
Florence (painted)
Date
ca. 1450 (painted)
Artist/maker
Unknown
Materials and Techniques
tempera on sweet chestnut panel
Dimensions
Height: 43.5 cm (estimate)
Width: 134.6 cm (estimate)
Height: 38 cm (painted surface)
Width: 128.3 cm (painted surface)
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, C.M. Kauffmann, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1973
Object history note
Purchased, 1863
Descriptive line
Cassone Panel painted with the scene of Horatius Cocles defending the Sublician Bridge. Anonymous Florentine School, 15th century.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 107-08, cat. no. 122
The following is the full text of the entry:
Florentine School, third quarter 15th century
122
CASSONE PANEL: HORATIUS COCLES DEFENDING THE SUBLICIAN BRIDGE
Tempera on sweet chestnut
Whole panel: 17 1/8 x 53 (43.5 x 134.6);
painted surface: 15 x 50 ½ (38 x 128.3); thickness 1 ¼ (3.2)
7897-1863
Horatius is shown first defending the bridge and then jumping into the water, while Porsenna, the Etruscan commander, looks on from his tent on the right (Livy, 2.10; Valerius Maximus, 3.2; Virgil, Aeneid, 8.650). Rome, with the Pantheon, the (?) Capitol, Castel S. Angelo and the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, is shown on the left.
This panel was ascribed by Schiaparelli (1908) to a follower of Pesellino related to the workshop that produced the Continence of Scipio (5804-1859; no. 9), and by Schubring (1915) to the 'Master of the Tournament of S. Croce', to whom he also attributed 5804-1859 (no. 9). Schubring argued on stylistic grounds that these two panels were from the same workshop, but this conclusion no longer seems acceptable. The treatment of the faces, for example, is different in the two panels: the carefully modelled face of Porsenna on the right is quite unlike anything produced in the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, to which the Continence of Scipio has been firmly attributed. 7987-1863 must have originated in a different workshop.
The theme of Horatius was only rarely treated in the ISth century. It occurs occasionally in illustrated Valerius Maximus mss. (e.g. Bologna University Library, MS. 2463), but in a rather different and simpler form, and it is only on cassoni that it is depicted at all regularly at this early date. A version with only minor variations, from the same workshop and doubtless from the same model, is in the collection of Mr Michael de Laszlo, New York, grandson of the painter Philip de Laszlo. The latter included it in the background of a portrait of his wife which now also belongs to Mr de Laszlo. Another version with more considerable variations, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Schubring, Apollo, v, 1927, p. 107, repr.). Similar compositions, slightly later in date, occur on the Morelli cassone from Lord Lee's collection (now in the Courtauld Institute Galleries, Catalogue of the Lee Collection, 1962, p. 29, no. 60; repr. Illustrated London News, 28 February 1948) and that in the Stadel Institute, Frankfurt (Schubring, 1915, no. 333, pl. lxix).
The architectural features are based on a bird's eye plan of Rome, probably dating from the early 13th century and apparently also used by Cimabue in the Upper Church at Assisi. Another copy of this plan must have been available in Apollonio's workshop, for the principal buildings of Rome set out in this cramped manner occur on several of its products (see Huelsen, below).
Condition. The surface is badly rubbed in many places. All the silver on the armour has disappeared, leaving a reddish brown surface. Many of the faces are damaged. Cleaned in 1961.
Prov. Bought by the Museum in 1863 for £12 10s.
Lit. A. Schiaparelli, La casa fiorentina, 1908, p. 285 and fig. 169; Schubring, Cassoni, 1915, p. 255, no. 143. Cf. Ch. Huelsen, 'Di alcune nuove vedute prospettiche di Roma' in Bollettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma, xxxix, 1911, pp. 3-22.
Materials
Tempera; Chestnut
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Arch bridges; Cocles, Horatius; Porsenna, Lars
Categories
Furniture; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
