Physical description
On the left, a group of figures around a blanket covered with gold plates, in the middle a group of soldiers astride and a tall buffet, on the right, a group of figures dancing and musicians on a platform, architectural elements in the background surround the whole composition.
Place of Origin
Florence, Italy (painted)
Date
ca. 1463 - 1465 (painted)
Artist/maker
Apollonio di Giovanni, born 1411 - died 1465 (workshop of, painters)
Marco del Buono, born 1402 - died 1489 (painters)
Materials and Techniques
tempera on poplar panel
Dimensions
Height: 43.5 cm panel, Width: 133 cm panel
Object history note
Bought in 1859 for £ 9,2
Historical significance: Originally attributed by Schiaparelli (1908) to a follower of Pesellino, and by Schubring (1915) to the Master of the Tournament of S. Croce, by Offner (1927) to the Dido Master and by Berenson (1932) to the studio of the Master of Jarves Cassoni, this cassone panel represents the Continence of Scipio, a popular subject at the time. Three similar cassone panels survive: one also attributed to the Workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni in the Art Institute of Chicago, another in collection of the Earl of Harewood, Leeds, and a third one, not by Apollonio, in the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. This subject from Roman Republican history is mentioned by Plutarch, Livy, and other classical authors, as well as Petrarch and later writers.
Cassoni were usually produced in pair and according to E. Callmann, the usual pendant to the Continence of Scipio would have been a scene of the Rape of the Sabines (two fragments and one panel of this subject attributed to Apollonio’s workshop survive: in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and the collection the Earl of Harewood, Leeds).
The juxtaposition of these scenes may have been intended to contrast Scipio’s generosity in returning the captive Lucretia to her prospective husband with Romulus' unscrupulous attack on the Sabines, whom the Romans had previously invited to a banquet. The classical subjects are here portrayed in a contemporary Florentine idiom, reflecting thus the sought-after qualities that The Continence of Scipio and the Rape of the Sabines exemplify: on one hand the virtues of restraint and magnanimity , and, on the other, a decorous example of feminine submissiveness followed by a wife after her marriage.
The composition is divided into two consecutive scenes: on the left is the representation of the continence of Scipio - identifiable by the inscription SCIPIONE on his hat, and his general’s baton - who stands in front of Lucretia and her promised husband on the other side of a blanket covered with presents. On the right, is depicted the celebration of Lucretia and Allucius’ wedding. These two scenes are separated in the middle by a group of soldiers, reminiscent of Paolo Uccello’s compositions, and a tall buffet known as a credenza, lavishly decorated with gold plates. These narrative divisions do not affect the fluidity of the composition, which seems superior to the above mentioned version of the Continence of Scipio in The Art Institute of Chicago (1933.1036).
The identity of the patron who commissioned it is unknown, but his/her coat-of-arms is probably that portrayed on the surcoat of the man at arms on a white horse at centre/left of the scene.
Historical context note
The term cassone stands in Italian for chest and relates to large and ornate pieces of furniture made in Italy from the 14th to the end of the 16th centuries. They were generally made on the occasion of a relatively important wedding and contained the bride's trousseau. Writing in the mid-sixteenth century, Vasari describes cassoni thus:
‘…citizens of those times used to have in their apartments great wooden chests in the form of a sarcophagus, with the covers shaped in various fashions…and besides the stories that were wrought on the front and on the ends, they used to have the arms, or rather, insignia, of their houses painted on the corners, and sometimes elsewhere. And the stories that were wrought on the front were for the most part fables taken from Ovid and from other poets, or rather stories related by the Greek and Latin historians, and likewise chases, jousts, tales of love, and other similar subjects…’.
(Giorgio Vasari, translated Gaston du C. de Vere, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, vol. 1, London 1996, p.267)
These lavishly decorated cassoni, often combined with pastiglia decoration, were generally commissioned in pairs. Florence was at that time the main centre of production. The painted decorations usually represented episodes from classical or biblical history or mythology appropriate for the newly wed.
The most flourishing cassone workshop in Florence was run by Marco del Buono Giamberti and Apollonio di Giovanni but major artists such as Domenico Veneziano and Botticelli may have decorated cassoni on occasion. Painted cassoni went out of fashion towards the end of the 15th century when carved oaken chests came into vogue.
Descriptive line
Cassone panel depicting the Continence of Scipio, workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni and Marco del Buono, ca. 1463-1465
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Callmann,Ellen Apollonio di Giovanni, Oxford, 1974, pp.41-2, 73, pl. 200.
Witthoft, Brucia, ‘Marriage Rituals and Marriage Chests in Quattrocento Florence’, Artibus et Historiae, 5, 3, 1982, pp.43-59.
Baskins, Cristelle L., '(in)Famous Men: the Continence of Scipio and formations of masculinity in fifteenth-century Tuscan domestic painting', in Studies in Iconography, 23, 2002, pp.109, 111, 114.
‘Cassone’, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, [12/07/2006], http://www.groveart.com)
Gombrich, E.H., ‘Apollonio di Giovanni: A Florentine cassone workshop seen through the eyes of a humanist poet’, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, xviii, 1955, pp. 16-34.; reprint in Norm and Form, London 1966, pp.11-28.
Mark Evans, The Painted World: from Illumination to Abstraction, London 2005, pp.38-9.
Baskins, Cristelle L., Cassone Painting, Humanism, and Gender in Early Modern Italy, Cambridge, 1998, pp.6, 8-9.
100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, V&A, 1985, pp. 24-25.
The following is the full text of the entry:
"PANEL B
WORKSHOP OF APOLLONIO DI GIOVANNI
Florentine School
CASSONE PANEL: THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO
Tempera on poplar, 43.5 x 133 cm
5804-1859
The Continence of Scipio (Panel B), was a subject rarely depicted by 15th-century artists, even on cassone. Classical authors relate how Scipio, whose name, 'Scipione', is inscribed on his hat, desired Lucretia as his own. However when informed of her betrothal to Allucius, Scipio nobly restored Lucretia to him, and returned to her parents her ransom of gold. Thus, beside the oriental carpet, stands a gold chest. True nobility lies, not in wealth and status - 'Seven or eight yards of scarlet will make a new citizen,' remarked Cosimo de Medici - but in the Renaissance ideal of exemplary virtue. The confident treatment of architecture and perspective in Figure B (C.1463-70) is that of Florence's leading workshop and its master, Apollonio de Giovanni. Its uninterrupted, rectangular format reflects Alberti's recommendations in Della Pittura, also a desirable affinity with classical sarcaphogi, and familiarity with Ghiberti's doors for the Florentine Baptistry. Ghiberti had abandoned cusped quatrefoils for unified compositions, one of which, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, is reflected on two other cassone in the Museum. The earlier Florentine panel (c. 1430), possibly from the vorkshop of the Master of the Grigg's Crucifixion, has a twodimensional quality. It retains the cusped divisions characterisic of the Gothic style, and medieval symbolism is perpetuated in the figure of Constancy, with column and inscribed scroll.
Muted reds and greens predominate in Panel A; gilding is restricted to the surrounding carved gesso panels. The Scipio panel glistens with gold, applied by the mettodoro after the painter had worked the colours. These are more varied, reflecting light and shade, and further embellished with punched motifs, a technique also used on small Renaissance caskets in the Museum, and by all cassone workshops.
Anne Buddle"
Kauffmann, C.M., Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 11-13, cat. no. 9.
The following is the full text of the entry:
APOLLONIO di Giovanni (1415-65)
Florentine School
In 1902 Aby Warburg published the records of a Florentine cassone workshop which contained a complete list of objects produced between 1446 and 1463 by the owners of the shop, Marco del Buono Giamberti and Apollonio di Giovanni. Schubring also published this list, but did not succeed in identifying any of its items with a known cassone.
In 1944 W. Stechow published a convincing identification of a cassone in the Oberlin collection with one of the items in this list, thus for the first time attaching a distinct style to the workshop. More recently, E. H. Gombrich drew attention to a poem by the humanist Ugolino Verino which describes the work of the 'Tuscan Apelles Apollonius' and which enabled him to identify Apollonio, rather than his partner Marco del Buono, as the artist of the principal works in this group: the Aeneid cassone in the Jarves Collection, Yale University, as well as the Vergil manuscript in the Riccardiana, Florence (MS. 492). E. H. Gombrich supports the view originally propounded by Offner that several of Schubring's categories - The 'Dido Master', the 'Master of the Tournament of Piazza S. Croce' and the 'Cassone Master' - all originated in the same workshop, which Berenson designated as headed by the 'Master of the Jarves Cassoni'. The evidence now at our disposal leaves little doubt that this was the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, which was one of the busiest in mid-15th century Florence.
Lit. A. Warburg in Jahrbuch der kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, 1902, p. 248 (reprinted in Gessammelte Schriften, 1932, p. 188); P. Schubring, Cassoni, 1915, pp. 88 f., 430-37; W. Stechow in Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, i, 1944, pp. 5-21; E. H. Gombrich in J. W. C. I., xviii, 1955, pp. 16-34; B. Maracchi Biagiarelli, ed., Virgilius Opera ... Manoscritto 492 della Biblioteca Riccardiana, 1969; E. Callmann, Apollonio di Giovanni (forthcoming).
Workshop of APOLLONIO di Giovanni
9
CASSONE PANEL: THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO
Tempera on poplar
Size of panel 17 1/8 x 52 3/8 (43.5 x 133);
painted surface 16 x 51 (40.6 x 129.5);
thickness 5/8 (1.6)
5804-1859
On the left Scipio (indicated by an inscription SCIPIONE) stands by the carpet, which is covered with gold objects sent as ransom for Lucretia by her parents. Scipio both returned the ransom to the parents and Lucretia to her bridegroom Allucius (Livy 26:50; Valerius Maximus IV.3.I.). The couple stand on the opposite side of the carpet, while the right half of the picture is devoted to their wedding.
Like so many others, this panel once bore an ascription to Dello Delli, presumably because Vasari had described him as the inventor of cassone painting. Schiaparelli (1908) attributed it to the follower of Pesellino responsible for the Solomon cassone (7852-1862; no. 121) and various other related works. Schubring grouped it with a cassone in the Jarves Collection, Yale University, which he described as representing the Tournament of Piazza S. Croce, Florence. Subsequent authorities have attempted to reduce Schubring's categories. Offner (1927) attributed this panel to the Dido (Vergil) Master on the grounds of its similarity with the Aeneid cassone in the Jarves Collection, and Berenson (1932) described this group as studio of the Master of the Jarves Cassoni. When in 1944 the Oberlin Battle cassone and the Jarves Aeneid cassone were firmly placed in the workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, the V. & A. Museum Scipio panel automatically followed. The Oberlin cassone is dated 1463 and it is tempting to place this work in the same period or shortly afterwards.
The Continence of Scipio is rare in 15th century painting and even on cassoni there are only a few examples. Schubring lists two (nos. 302, 541) but these are from different workshops. They are not very similar in composition and neither of them contains the wedding scene.
Condition. Cleaned in 1961.
Prov. Bought in 1859 for £9 2S.
Lit.J. H. Pollen, Ancient and modern furniture, 1874, p. 131; Duc de Rivoli in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xxxv, 1887, p. 312 (Dello Delli); W. Crane in Magazine of Fine Arts, i-ii, 1906, p. 190 repr.; A. Schiaparelli, La casa fiorentina, 1908, p. 285, fig. 168; Schubring, Cassoni, p. 254, no. 141, pl. xxvii; R. Offner, Italian Primitives at Yale University, 1927, p. 30; B. Berenson, Italian pictures, 1932, p. 346 f.; ibid., Florentine School, i, 1963, p. 18 (as Apollonio di Giovanni).
Warburg, Aby in Jahrbuch der kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, 1902, p. 248 (reprinted in Gessammelte Schriften, 1932, p. 188).
P. Schubring, Cassoni, 1915, pp. 88 f., 430-37, no. 141.
As the Master of Santa Croce Tournament
Stechow, W. in Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, i, 1944, pp. 5-21.
Maracchi Biagiarelli, B. ed., Virgilius Opera ... Manoscritto 492 della Biblioteca Riccardiana, 1969.
Offner, R., Italian Primitives at Yale University, New Haven, 1927, p. 30.
As workshop of the virgil Master.
Marle, R. van, The Development of the Italian Schools of Paintings, vol. x, The Hague, 1928, p. 553.
As close to the Virgil Master and Pesellino.
Berenson, B., Italian pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 147.
As Master of the Jarves Cassoni
Berenson, B., Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Milan, 1936, p. 283.
As Master of the Jarves Cassoni
Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance Florentine School, 2 vol., London, 1963, p. 18.
As Apollonio di Giovanni.
Exhibition History
The Artist at Work (Hampstead Art Centre, London 01/01/1966-31/12/1966)
Materials
Tempera; Poplar
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Carthage; Scipio; Chests; Cassoni
Categories
Marriage
Collection code
PDP
