Box
ca. 1450 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A number of cylindrically shaped boxes, dating from about 1450 and decorated in gilt gesso, are found in museum collections. They often depict mythical animals or symbols of love and are thought to have contained hats or head-dresses. These highly decorative boxes would have made suitable presents for lovers. A circular engraving from about this time, in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna, is decorated with lovers and cupids framed in medallions, and could well have served as a design for such a box.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Wood (softwood and possibly poplar or willow), with moulded, punched and gilded gesso |
| Brief description | Circular box and cover; Italy; ca. 1450 |
| Physical description | Box and Cover of chestnut, with gesso on a linen ground and decorated with punched ornament, colours and gilding. The brim of the box is decorated with four circular medalions each contaning a centaur-like monster in relief. The spaces between the medallions are filled symmetrically with floral scrolls and at the base is a raised band of rope ornament. The lid has a circular compartment in the centre filled in with a winged sphinx above the head of which is a scroll with an inscription that is now illegiible. Round this is a broader border containing four circular medallions which originally contained designs now missing. Between the medallions is floral scrollwork and the whole border is outlined by two bands of rope ornament. The edge of the lid is decorated with four rosettes placed between symmetrically arranged floral scrollwork. From visual examination the sides of the box and lid are softwood. The flat parts could not be seen clearly, but other boxes of this type use softwood or poplar (or willow). The edge of the lid is 2mm thick, that of the box c.3mm. The interior of the box sides appear has close-set indentations. This might have been caused by the board (soaked to make it more pliable) having being pulled (and bent) through a toothed roller, but at present this is a speculative hypothesis. (NH and Adam Bowett June 2008) |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Purchased for £30 from the antique dealer, Bardini (Lot 324). |
| Historical context | On the sociological and symbolic aspects of Italian Renaissance boxes of this type (and others) see, for example, Adrian Randolph, Touching Objects (2014), chapter 3 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | A number of cylindrically shaped boxes, dating from about 1450 and decorated in gilt gesso, are found in museum collections. They often depict mythical animals or symbols of love and are thought to have contained hats or head-dresses. These highly decorative boxes would have made suitable presents for lovers. A circular engraving from about this time, in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna, is decorated with lovers and cupids framed in medallions, and could well have served as a design for such a box. |
| Bibliographic reference | Peter Thornton: Form & Decoration - Innovation in the Decorative Arts (1470 - 1870) (London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998), pl. 5.
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 489&A-1899 |
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| Record created | November 15, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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