Wooden box, cylindrica, with gilt gesso decoration; Italy; 15th century

Gilt gesso cylindrical box, decortated on the sides with 6 medallions of a reclining stag, and decorated with scolls of painted carnations.The lid is decorated with carnation scrolls, linking two reclining stag medallions with two coats of arms, one of a rampant bull on the left and one of six rocks and a crucifix on the right, both identified by W.H.Pollen with Buondelmonte family. The edge of the lid is decorated with beading and its side with encircled gilt gesso stars (or 6 lobed flowers) with carnation scrolls in between. In the centre of the lid is an empty space and a square hole. Presumably it was originally fitted with a knob or pommel to help lift the lid. The box is made up of a pliable strip of wood, wound round a disc-like base and nailed into position.Note that the gilded surface is enhanced with punch work.

Lined with green silk over gesso. The underside of the bottom is gilded, with punched decoration of scrolling foliage (similar to textile patterns). There is no evidence that feet were once attached.

Note
The lid rim is 2mm thick, the box rim 5mm. The rim looks like poplar or willow. There is an in-fill repair (22cm) around the rim, where silk lining has been removed.

This object was purchased by the South Kensington Museum for 16 shillings 8 pence, but the provenance remains unknown. It does not seem to have been part of the Jules Soulages Collection.

Lent to the exhibition Love and Marriage in Italian Renaissance Art, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nov. 11 2008 to Feb. 16, 2009

A number of gilt circular boxes, dating from about 1450, are to be found in museum collections. Although they are made from less costly woods and assembled in a simple way, they are lavishly decorated with gilt gesso, much like cassoni of this period. Although they have not been precisely identified in inventories and their function can only be guessed at, it seems most likely they were used for storing expensive hats and head-dresses. A design possibly intended for this sort of item is in the collections of the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna.

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

This box was made in about 1450. Its cylindrical shape and the lavish gilding suggest that it was used for storing an expensive hat or elaborate headdress. Similar gilt gesso decoration was used on cassoni or storage chests made in Italy at the same time. The decoration is more in keeping with gothic scrolling and heraldry than with the revived interest in classical myths that was one of the hallmarks of the Renaissance. The wood may have been cheap but the decoration was expensive and the aim no doubt was to enhance the status of the owner.

5757-1859