Physical description
Painted wooden tray with twelves sides. The front painted with a scene depicting the triumph of love. The moulded edges are gold.
Place of Origin
Florence
Date
ca. 1460-1470 (painted)
Artist/maker
Apollonio di Giovanni
Materials and Techniques
tempera on poplar panel
Dimensions
Height: 72 cm
Width: 72 cm
Depth: 5.5 cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Object history note
Purchased, 1869
Historical context note
This desco da parto, or birth tray, dating from the mid-fifteenth century, is a decorated salver made to celebrate the birth of a child. The coat of arms on its reverse has been identified as those of the Samminiato and the Gianfigliazzi families of Florence. As the marriage of Francesco da San Miniato and Constanza Gianfigliazzi is recorded in 1537 or 1547, and the form of the shield bearing their arms is unknown prior to the 1520s, this tray would appear to have been partially re-painted in or after 1537.
The Black Death of 1348 was especially lethal in the crowded cities of Tuscany, where outbreaks of plague recurred through the fifteenth century. Even at the best of times, the mortality rate during pregnancy was high, and successful births were occasions for celebration. The earliest documentary reference to a desco da parto is in a Florentine inventory of 1383 and the oldest surviving examples date from the 1370s. A number are depicted in paintings, and it has been estimated from their incidence in inventories that over 40% of the households in fifteenth century Florence had at least one such tray. They could be commissioned or purchased ready-made. Prices could range from as little as ten soldi (the equivalent of five days’ wages for a skilled labourer, or five bushels of wheat) to the substantial sum of nine florins (slightly less than the cost of a mule, or a year’s wages for a maidservant). The latest examples date from the 1570s, and about eighty survive to the present day. Most of these were made in Florence, some in Siena, and a few are from Ferrara.
Deschi were used to carry food and gifts to the birth chamber, and to support bedside objects. There were four main types: painted, inlaid, simple wooden and low bowl. 144-1869 is of the most common form, the painted tray. Some are circular, but the majority are polygonal, and most frequently they are twelve-sided. Their usual width ranges from about 47 to 75cm. Fronts were customarily decorated with birth scenes, allegories of love, or mythological themes. Reverses usually bear floral and heraldic designs, putti, or symbols of fertility. When not in use, they could serve as wall decoration. The largest can exceed 92cm in width and have elaborate frames. Such works were probably made for show, rather than use. One of the grandest surviving examples, made to commemorate the birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1449, was displayed in his camera at the time of his death in 1492, when it was valued at ten florins.
Descriptive line
Birth tray (salver) depicting the Triumph of Love, workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni, ca. 1460-1470
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
100 Great Paintings of The Victoria & Albert Museum. London: V&A, 1985, p. 26
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni
Florentine School
BIRTH TRAY: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE
REVERSE: SHIELD WITH TWO ARMS FRAMED BY A GARLAND
Tempera on poplar panel, 12-sided. Diam 59.7 cm; diam.,
including frame 73 cm; thickness of panel 3.2 cm
144-1869
Renaissance workshops produced not only cassoni (see above), but also painted banners, wainscot panels, bed-heads and birth-trays (deschi da parto). Deschiwere commissioned to celebrate a birth, when ceremonial gifts were presented to the mother, and were subsequently preserved as commemorative objects - at Lorenzo de Medici's death (1493), his descowas found in the chamber.
This example was painted in Apollonio di Giovanni's workshop. A 17th-century copy of Apollonio's bottega (account book) affords a fascinating insight into contemporary social history: a record 23 pairs of cassoni produced in 1452, and, beside the clients' names, orders for deschiclosely follow those for cassoni. To achieve and maintain this output, techniques and designs were standardized. Stock figures include the elegant youth in 3/4-frontal pose, and the same regal female representing Juno, the Queen of Sheba or Lucretia.
The delightful seascape, like the city on Panel B above, is a compilation of workshop models, and hats and head-dresses conform to standard types.
Cupid on his triumphal car is a scene inspired by Petrarch's Trionfi. Before c.1450, illustrations to The Triumph of Love had included the chariot, based on classical models, but not, as here, the humorous scenes of Phyllis riding Aristotle, and Delilah shearing Samson. These scenes of female domination had themselves been represented earlier - they were popular in France, and occur in a 14th-century German embroidery - but their association with The Triumph of Love possibly originated in two manuscript illustrations by Apollonio. Extolled by a contemporary poet as 'The Tuscan Apelles', Apollonio's significance is disseminating representations of subjects inspired by classical antiquity was considerable.
A preoccupation with heraldry in Early Renaissance architecture and decoration reflects the significance attached to marriage and childbirth in competitive society. Within a garland comparable to those on the Museum's terra-cotta heraldic plaques by Luca della Robbia, the descobears on the reverse the arms of the Samminiato and Gianfigliazzi families. No liaison between these families is recorded before 1537, and yet the Triumph scene, on stylistic grounds, must date from c.1460. Although the descomay have been associated with an earlier, unrecorded marriage, the back was probably repainted after the 1537 marriage. However, this destroyed the original coat of arms, and the first owner's identity is now lost.
Anne Buddle"
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 13-14, cat. no. 10
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
10
BIRTH TRAY: THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE
Reverse: SHIELD WITH TWO ARMS
FRAMED BY A GARLAND
Tempera on poplar panel,
twelve sided
Diam. 23½ (59.7); diam., including
frame 28¾ (73); thickness of panel,
1¼ (3.2)
144-1869
The triumphal chariot of Cupid occupies the centre of the composition. In the foreground there are two scenes of feminine domination: Phyllis (or Campaspe) riding on Aristotle's back and Delilah shearing Samson. For a note on the purpose of the birth tray, or desco da parto, and on the relationship of the composition with Petrarch's Triumph of Love, see 398-1890 (no. 124).
D'Essling and Müntz (1902), followed by Schubring (1915), grouped this desco with the others painted with the Triumph of Love (Turin; N. G.; V. & A. Museum 398-1890; Leroy collection, now Louvre) and attributed them all to the same workshop, which Schubring called the 'Master of the Cassone'. However, although the Turin and N. G. deschi originated in the same workshop, they differ considerably from the two in the V. & A. Museum and are probably somewhat earlier (c. 1440-50). The Museum's two deschi are similar to each other in general appearance but different in detail; for example, in the treatment of the faces, the landscape and, very strikingly, the horses. 144-1869 appears to be slightly later in style.
A twelve-sided desco with the Triumph of Chastity in the North Carolina Museum of Art at Raleigh (23 X 23¼ ins.; see F. R. Shapley, Catalogue of the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian paintings xiii-xv century, 1966, p. 98, figs. 263, 265), which is very close in style to 144-1869, has been attributed to Apollonio di Giovanni. This attribution has the support of Ellen Callmann (oral opinion 1971) and may be accepted for 144-1869, even though it does not exhibit the characteristics of Apollonio's style as clearly as does the Scipio panel (see no. 9).
The shield on the back displays two coats of arms divided per pale. (I) Quarterly, i and iv Azure, a semis of fleurs-de-lys or charged with a label of three points gules; ii and iii Or, an eagle displayed sable (Samminiato). (2) Or, a lion rampant azure armed and langued gules Gianfigliazzi).
The identification of the two families as the Samminiato and Gianfigliazzi of Florence seems reasonably certain, even though there is a slight difference in colour in the second and third quarters of the Samminiato arms (which are given in J. B. Rietstap, Armorial Général, v, 1921, pl, ccxxxvi, as: argent, an eagle displayed azure).
The two coats of arms occurring together on one shield indicate a marriage alliance between the two families. There is no record of such a marriage in the 15th century, but we know that in 1537 Francesco di Simone di Bartolommeo da San Miniato (b. 1508) married Constanza di Bongianni di Gherardo Gianfigliazzi (MS. Passerini 188, insertion 23, Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence). As the painting on the front of the tray may be dated on stylistic grounds c. 1460, in any case not later than 1470, one might be tempted to think that there was an earlier marriage between these two families which has not been recorded, were it not for the fact that the almost 'baroque' form of the shield does not occur in Florentine heraldry until the 1520S (A. Marquand, Robbia heraldry, 1919, p. xvi). Clearly, therefore, the arms on the back may be connected with the marriage of 1537, when the original arms were probably overpainted and the tray presented to Francesco and Constanza Samminiatio.
Condition. Cleaned and restored by Sebastian Isepp in 1950. Old repaint remains in upper left background.
Prov. Bought from the painter W. Spence in Florence, 1869, for £30.
Lit. J. H. Pollen, Ancient and modern furniture, 1874, p. 302; Prince d'Essling (=Duc de Rivoli) and E. Müntz, Pétrarque, 1902, p. 146; P. Schubring, Cassoni, 1915, p. 269, no. 201, pl. xliii.”
Shape
twelve-sided
Materials
Tempera; Poplar
Subjects depicted
Cupid; Love; Samson; Allegorical figures; Birthdays; Aristotle; Tray; Delilah; Phyllis; Love; Campaspe
Categories
Birth; Children & Childhood; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
