Italian (Florentine), 1464?; painted, arms of Gondi and Corbinelli

Panel, the lid of a chest (cassone), painted on its inside with two winged boys (naked but for a necklace with coral), and bearing a beribboned wreath containing two shields: the dexter or right hand shield -or, two maces in saltire, sable, their heads in chief (Arms of Gondi). The other: azure, a stag salient (rampant?), argent (Arms of Corbinelli (aka Corbellini).

According to Callmann, the back (ie outer surface) of the panel has remains of gesso and traces of paint in which a large brocade pattern is just discernible.

Bought for £3. 4s. 2d (according to Callmann 1999, from William Blundell Spence, p. 346, n.46)
Listed at Osterley 1957 in Findings List.
A note on the register gives "Antonio Gondi of Florence married in 1464 Magdalena Corbinelli". Callmann (1979, n. 4) suggests that the arms are Corbellini.

The distinctive clouds under the feet of the angels give them the name 'putti pattinatori' (putti with roller skates).

A plausible printed source for the design exists in a printed sheet of designs in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, which is illustrated in Peter Thornton, Form and Decoration – Innovation in the Decorative Arts 1470-1870 (London, 1998), p. 12 p. 3 'thought to have been produced in a Florentine workshop during the 1470s, perhaps that of Francesco Roselli'

Callmann (1979) describes the design as 'unmistakeably inspired by Roman sarcophagi' p. 174; she notes three other similar panels or fragments of panels (Fondazione Longhi, Florence); private collection (sold Sotheby's 19/4/1972 (8), formerly collection of William Graham; Nationalmuseum Stockholm,acc. no. 2114, and argues convincingly that these formed part of cassone lids, being the internal face visible when the chest was opened, and like cassone backs produced more economically than chest fronts or wall panels. Unlike cassone fronts which were painted on a thick layer of gesso, polished to a high gloss, the picture sketched on the surface, the gold laid down, and the paint applied with a small brush in many tiny strokes, this panel is painted with a thin layer of paint on very little ground 'something [the artist] could not normally get away with as guild rules were strict and the customers knew what they had a right to expect.' The back (ie outer surface) of the panel has 'remains of gesso and traces of paint in which a large brocade pattern is just discernible', like other rare surviving fifteenth-century tops of lids, which were made to look as though an elegant cloth had been placed on top of the chest. Other designs for the inner faces of lids are single reclining figures (a man, or nude woman eg. V&A4639-1858), or an elegant and surprisingly large textile pattern, in scale with the volutes and carvings rather than with the picture gracing the front.

The type with coats of arms refer to the prospective union being celebrated, stressing the dynastic connotations of marriage.

Goldthwaite, Richard A.., Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence - a Study of Four Families, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1968), pp 156-186

By the early 14c a number of Gondi were participating in the international import-export business, but they do not appear to have played an important role in Florentine politics. The wealth of the various members of the family varied greatly during the 14c and 15c. Giuliano di Leonardo Gondi (1421-1501), elder brother of Antonio was a merchant (with a workshop in Florence, and business abroad) and banker, who lent to some very elevated clients throughout Italy such as Federigo, Count of Urbino and Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, King of Naples. He and Antonio carried out business operations in Naples. He appears to have detached himself from political involvements. In 1488 construction began on the great family palace, but lapsed at his death. He enriched the Gondi chapel in S. Maria Novella.

Antonio di Leonardo (1443-86)
Antonio's sons raised the Gondi to more elevated status, through their establishment of a great banking house in Lyon, and elevation to nobility. Little is known of Antonio Gondi. He was much younger than his brother, into whose businesses – silk and battiloro manufacturies in Florence, with a base in Naples – he was brought. The company’s name included Antonio’s and he shared equally with his brother in the profits. Like his brother he appears to have had no political role in Florence. He died in 1486 in Ferrara, leaving Lena di Bernardo Corbinelli and 6 sons and 6 daughters, all but one still minors at his death. He did not own a residence in Florence (he rented a house at 60 florins a year there), and his only real property consisted of two farms and a small parcel of land located at Ponte di Mezzo just outside Florence towards Prato, altogether valued in 1480 at 1,054 florins. The balance of his estate was his share in the company owned with his brother, which was large enough to fund his brother’s great palace in Florence. In 1496, after his death, his heirs were extended credit on the estate to buy a palace in the S. Maria Novella quarter of Florence for 2,400 florins. After the estate was divided among the sons in 1506 (when the youngest reached maturity), only one son and his mother remained there (the son Antonio had gone to Lyon to establish a branch of the family business).

5939-1859