Cassone panel, Italy (Perugia, Umbria) ca. 1450

Rectangular cassone panel, poplar, gilded and decorated with figures and motifs in gilt modeled gesso, partly decorated with red, blue, green and flesh-toned glaze, on a gilt background. The panel depicts two processions converging on the scene off-centre where the bride and groom exchange rings in the presence of a priest (?). The bride's procession includes a woman wearing a Burgundian headdress, and another with a red balzo headdress, while the bride is bare-headed with her hair in a plait. Between the bride and the groom stands the officiator, facing the viewer. Both the bride and groom hold knotted handkerchiefs in their left hands and exchange rings with outstretched right hands. Immediately behind the groom are two companions, followed by two trumpeters, whose trumpet banners depict the crowned gryphon of Perugia. Behind them stands a centrally placed lutenist, facing the viewer. Proceeding towards him are four attendants carrying fluted jars (possibly of sweetmeats?), resting on napkins, which they carry partly slung over their shoulders. The leader of this group wears a short blue cloak emblazoned with a heraldic chained leopard on a cushion. Behind them stands a steward, holding a staff and facing the viewer, in front of an attendant on the far right bearing a coronet (?).

The gilt background is decorated with finely punched scrolls, and the figures tread amongst stylized flowers with red petals. At both ends are broad gilt vertical strips, decorated with a series of birds eye punches arranged in a cruciform pattern. Dovetails are cut into the sides, which are flush with the front panel. A narrow strip of grooved moulding is nailed along the top of the panel, and a stepped moulding along the bottom.

This panel originally formed part of a marriage cassone, the pair to which also survives in the V&A (inv. no. 8974-1863). It formed part of the collections of Signor Serafino Tordelli of Spoleto (at which time it retained its 'antependium' or frontage to the associated plinth), and was sold to the South Kensington Museum by Giuseppe Baslini, a Milan-based dealer for £20 in December 1868.

Lent to the exhibition 'L'Autunno del Medievo in Umbria - Cofani nuziali in gesso durato e una bottega perugina dimenticata' at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, 21 Sept. 2019 - 6 January 2020

The cassone panel was formerly owned by Serafino Tordelli (1787-1864), a collector from Spoleto. It was described in the inventory of Tordelli’s collection compiled by his heirs after his death for the sale of the collection, and is depicted (with its antependium) in a drawing October 13, 1868 of Tordelli’s main room drawn by Giovanni Montiroli (Tordelli’s nephew). The collection was sold for 60,000 lire to Giuseppe Baslini (1817-1877), a well-known antiquarian and dealer in Milan.
See Fratellini, Bianca Maria, "Collezionismo a Spoleto nel sec. XIX. La collezione Tordelli," Spoletum, "Studi in Onore di Giovanni Antonelli nel suo lxx compleanno,", 34-35, 1990, pp. 128 -140, pp. 131-2, reproduced p.132 fig.3


Historical significance: This panel's importance lies in the depiction of wedding practices in Italy during the 15th century. The exchange if rings between the bride and bridegroom (anellamento) is taking place in the fresh air, in the presence of an officiator, who was not necessarily be a priest. Although the Catholic church regarded marriage as a holy sacrament, weddings often took place in secular surroundings in Italy, and priests seldom played a prominent part in them until about 1550, a century after this chest was made. On this cassone and two others in the V & A's collections (Museum nos. 7898 - 1863 and 8794-1863), at last some of the women wear Burgundian Fashions, which were as much in demand in Italy as feudal France.

At the beginning of the 15th century, providing the chest for the bridal trusseau was the responsibility of the bride's family, although it became increasingly taken on by that of the groom. These chests were often emblazoned with coats of arms of the families linked in marriage, and frequently decorated with classical myths, extolling wifely virtues. In this example and two other similar ones very likely from the same workshop (Museum nos. 7898 - 1863 and 8794-1863), a contemporary wedding scene is being depicted. By the 1850s, if not earlier, the surviving panels were salvaged from old, damaged cassoni and either sold as pictures for wall decoration, like this example, or made up into new cassoni, often heavily carved, gilded and made to look old.

This panel would once have formed part of a Italian marriage chest of about 1450. It must have been kept or sold as wall decoration, once the old chest had fallen into disrepair. Rather than depicting classical myths that extolled wifely virtue, as would have been usual on such a panel, this one depicts a marriage ceremonial of the time, when the church played less part than it did after about 1550. The officiator may not even necessarily be a priest, and the bride and groom exchange rings in the fresh air, not in a church. This item is decorated in gilt gesso and probably comes from the same workshop as two other examples in the collections of the V & A (Museum nos. 7898-1863 and 8794-1863).

21-1869