Box
15th century (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This ornate box was probably intended as a wedding or engagement present. From about 1350, it became customary throughout Italy, for young men to give their fiancées boxes decorated on the theme of love or marriage. The lid of the box is inscribed ‘amor vincit omnia’ (Love conquers everything) and the sides are decorated with processions of musicians and bearers of gifts, such as might have appeared at a wedding at this time. Boxes made in about 1500, as this one was, were commonly decorated with a scented white lead-based material called pastiglia moulded with figures and motifs, but on this example, plain moulded gesso has been used, imitating carved stone. This technique is very rarely seen.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Wood, with applied gesso duro ornament, painted and gilt |
| Brief description | Coffret; Italian, 15th century |
| Physical description | Coffret of wood, oblong with applied ornament in gesso duro painted and gilt. All around the body are four processional groups of men and women, some conversing, some playing musical instruments and others carrying gifts, at the angles are balustrade ornament. On the lid is an imbricated pattern with heraldic shields at the corners and a label with the words 'omnia vincit amor'. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | AMOR VINCIT OMNIA
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| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by J.P. Heseltine |
| Object history | PASTIGLIA BOXES Gilt pastiglia boxes were mostly made in Venice and Ferrara from about 1480 until 1550. Pastiglia or pasta is the name given to white lead paste, bound with egg white. This was often scented and described in contemporary inventories as pasta di muschio (musk paste). The pastiglia figures and motifs were shaped with a lead mould and then glued to the gilt surface of the box - hence their frequent recurrence on other boxes. The boxes are decorated with legends of Ancient Rome and the scenes copied from woodcuts such as Jacobus Argentoratensis' Triumph of Caesar (Venice, 1504) or illustrations of Livy's Roman History. (Label text, circa 2000, from old Medieval & Renaissance Galleries) |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This ornate box was probably intended as a wedding or engagement present. From about 1350, it became customary throughout Italy, for young men to give their fiancées boxes decorated on the theme of love or marriage. The lid of the box is inscribed ‘amor vincit omnia’ (Love conquers everything) and the sides are decorated with processions of musicians and bearers of gifts, such as might have appeared at a wedding at this time. Boxes made in about 1500, as this one was, were commonly decorated with a scented white lead-based material called pastiglia moulded with figures and motifs, but on this example, plain moulded gesso has been used, imitating carved stone. This technique is very rarely seen. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 110-1887 |
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| Record created | May 26, 2000 |
| Record URL |
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