Box
ca. 1510 (made)
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| Place of origin |
Gilt-boxes, decorated with scented lead-based paste (pasta di muschio) and illustrated with ancient Greek and Roman legends, were popular throughout Italy between about 1470 and 1570, and were used for storing small personal effects. This one is decorated with harpies, dolphins and other grotesques, and a series of wreathed medallions containing individual Greek gods or heroes: Apollo playing a lira da Braccio, a Renaissance form of violin, on the front; Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion on the left side; and Milo of Croton, trapped in a tree he tried to split apart, on the right. By this time, everyday objects were more often decorated by mythical figures than religious themes.
Object details
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| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Alder, covered with gesso, gilding and white lead <i>pasta di muschio</i> |
| Brief description | Alder box, covered with gesso, gilding and white lead pastiglia, Venice, ca. 1510. |
| Physical description | 'Casket of wood with decoration in relief in a paste (pastiglia) of white lead and egg-binder on a rouletted and gilt ground. Rectangular form covered lid decorated with confronting harpies and scrolled design. Round the sides and ends, eighth scenes from Roman history divided into classical columns. Interior later lined with red baize' - Registered description in 1953. |
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by Dr W. L. Hildburgh, FSA |
| Object history | PASTIGLIA BOXES Gilt pastiglia boxes were mostly made in Venice and Ferrara from about 1480 until 1550. Pastiglia or pasta is the name given to white lead paste, bound with egg white. This was often scented and described in contemporary inventories as pasta di muschio (musk paste). The pastiglia figures and motifs were shaped with a lead mould and then glued to the gilt surface of the box - hence their frequent recurrence on other boxes. The boxes are decorated with legends of Ancient Rome and the scenes copied from woodcuts such as Jacobus Argentoratensis' Triumph of Caesar (Venice, 1504) or illustrations of Livy's Roman History. (Label text, circa 2000, from old Medieval & Renaissance Galleries) |
| Summary | Gilt-boxes, decorated with scented lead-based paste (pasta di muschio) and illustrated with ancient Greek and Roman legends, were popular throughout Italy between about 1470 and 1570, and were used for storing small personal effects. This one is decorated with harpies, dolphins and other grotesques, and a series of wreathed medallions containing individual Greek gods or heroes: Apollo playing a lira da Braccio, a Renaissance form of violin, on the front; Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion on the left side; and Milo of Croton, trapped in a tree he tried to split apart, on the right. By this time, everyday objects were more often decorated by mythical figures than religious themes. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.22-1953 |
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| Record created | November 22, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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