Walnut, carved and gilded with scenes of Phaeton and Apollo, Rome c1570

Chest (cassone) with hinged lid and set on lion feet; the front and sides with high-relief carvings against gilded backgrounds, which depict scenes from the stories of Apollo and Phaeton, divided by caryatid term figures, centred on a coat of arms supported by two putti. The relief carving is partly gilded.

Design
Left side: youthful term figure bust with breastplate, set on a plinth with scrolling shoulder
Panel with a trophy of a winged helmet and bundle of arrows, 'suspended' on a cord from a ring
Naked female winged caryatid at the corner
Panel with Apollo carrying a bow (right arm missing) and Python
Naked female caryatid
Panel with Clymae and Phaeton pointing to a star
Shield supported by two putti, above a mask
Panel with Phaeton and Apollo (as a statue)
Naked female caryatid
Panel with Eridanus (Po) river god and two attendants
Naked female winged caryatid at the corner
Panel with a scrollwork cartouche (or shield) with a cingquefoil boss, with twin ram head supporters, 'suspended' on a cord from a ring

All the term figures wear bead necklaces (painted) and hair ornament. The rear term figures are youthful busts wearing a breastplate, the head inclined towards the front of the cassone. The frieze has acanthus flanking palmette, above running beads (mostly missing). Under the chest front is a carved, scrolling apron with paired rosettes flanking a bud.

Construction
The front of the cassone consists of a single deep (about 11cm) board (neatly excavated inside to form a shoulder), and a freize panel butting onto the single deep board. Integral to the deep board are the four relief panels, and the rearmost parts of the shield and supporters, and term figures, (the near shoulder of the end terms). The foremost parts of the term figures are built up with a top layer. The freize panel is carved in the solid with the heads of the term figures and a grotesque, foliate mask escutcheon
The freize panel has been rebacked with a replacement section.
Each end is formed by a single panel, below a separate freize. Integral to the main panel is the carved trophy (in low relief), the body of the rear term figure, and part of the body of the front term angel figure. Integral to the freize is the head of the rear term figure, the head of the front term figure. A bead moulding has been nailed (or glued) to the freize.

The back consists of a narrow board above a deep board (probably glued rather than doweled together), both roughly finished on the outside.

The lid consists of a rectangular frame of half-lapped construction, held on three ring hinges (apparently original). The frame is carved on the front and ends with a fluted fore-edge, and overlapping scale pattern. It is plain along the back. On the frame stands a canted, rectangular frame formed by thick, cyma mouldings (meeting in a mitred joint), carved with superimposed acanthus leaf, on three sides and at the top edge a double cyma leaf moulding. This angled frame contains a flat panel, in the centre of which is an applied roundel with a grotesque foliate mask.

The bottom consists of two, (possibly doweled) boards, with moulded ends, nailed up into the sides, back and ends. The cassone stands on four lion feet.

Bought for £110 in Paris (No further information given in the early register).

A note on the dept. green catalogue says that the chest came from Palazzo Lancellotti in Rome, but this may be supposition, as the acquisition papers do not give this information.

Museum papers ref. T.14715/1907 is recorded as having contained correspondence from Prince Lancellotti giving the marriage date 1570 for the marriage of Giulia Delfini and Paolo Lancellotti, but this file (nor abstracts of correspondence) do not survive.

Various other cassoni of comparable form and carving, with a central coat of arms and winged corner term figures, have been published, mostly described as Roman or Venetian mid-16th century, though fewer use term figures to separate the carved scenes, as here: Berlin K.2465 (lost)

See also:
Walnut cassone with scenes of Phaeton, (dims. 65 x 175 x 57cm), Minneapolis Institute of Art, gift of the F.W. Clifford family 59.8.
Pair of walnut cassoni with arms of Rustici and Massimo , ill. in Goffredo Lizzani, Il Mobile Romano (1970), figs. 185-6, 189-90; described in
GONZALEZ-PALACIOS, Alvar (editor), Fasto Romano - dipinti, sculture, arredi dai Palzzi di Roma. (Rome, Palazzo Sacchetti, 1991), no. 64, as by Tuscan craftsmen.

probably Rome

This cassone (chest) and its pair (4416-1857, also in the V&A), were probably made to celebrate a marriage linking two wealthy families, whose arms are prominently displayed in the centre by naked putti. It is possible that it marked the marriage of Paolo Lancelloti and Giulia Delfini in Rome, in 1570.

Across the front of each cassone are four scenes carved in relief, relating to various episodes from Greek myth. On this cassone, from the left Apollo has shot dead the dragon or serpent, known as the Python which guarded the oracular shrine at Delphi (perhaps a play on the family name, Delfini), which Apollo then took his own oracle. The second scene probably shows the nymph Clymene, with Phaethon her son by Helios (the sun), praying to the sun god. The third shows Phaeton as a youth asking Helios (like a living statue, on a plinth), for the use of his father's celestial chariot. The fourth scene shows a reclining river god with two attendants and probably represents Eridanus, into whose waters Phaethon crashed, when he could no longer control the fiery horses (a scene shown on the companion cassone).

The classical myth, with its themes of love, and the lessons of imprudence and filial duty/parental responsibility, would have been seen as resonant and edifying for a married couple. On the female term figures that separate the scenes, lion masks are strategically placed below their waist, and a fierce mask forms the escutcheon around the keyhole. Both details suggest that a symbolic guard is being placed over the family valuables and reputations.

4417-1857