Box decorated with pastiglia

Rectangular ‘pastiglia’ casket on turned feet, decorated on all four sides and lid with low relief white moulded decoration on a smooth, water gilded ground. With an added, metal sprung catch operated by pushing the knob protruding on the front. The bottom plain wood. The interior painted red. The moulded decoration is particularly finely and minutely modelled.

Decorative scheme
Decorated with scenes from Roman History and classical legends, set within compartments between pairs of corner pilasters. Above each compartment is a running husk moulding, and below each compartment is a frieze or low tier of decoration consisting of an X-form acanthus motif alternating with (alternately) a female bust or a stylized flower head, bordered above by a small bead moulding, and below by a running husk moulding. Around all four sides of the lid (on both upper and lower faces), and on the upper face of the bottom board where it protrudes beyond the sides of the casket is a running acanthus leaf.

The front with a king enthroned between two groups of standing soldiers, suggested by De Winter to show Gaius Muscius Scaevola, who is usually depicted proving his valour by thrusting his hand into the fire. [Check against the same scene shown on other caskets eg W.23-1953]
Right: battle scene between two distant towns.
Back: a cavalcade of Romans including a youth preceded by a crowned figure; before them a woman lamenting over the death of a youth, suggested by De Winter probably to show the justice of Trajan (based upon Dio Cassius' account (Epitome of Book LXVIII, chapter 10), in which Trajan, busy with preparations for the Dacian Wars, was petitioned for justice by the mother of a murdered man. He asked her to wait until he returned, but she pointed out that he might not return at all. He made time to settle her case despite all the other calls on his time.
Left: An enthroned crowned ruler with a bound man at either side and armed troops.

The flat lid has three square scenes divided by pilasters, which are enclosed by an applied, convex, mitred wood moulding with ‘pastiglia’ garland. From the left the scenes are: Diana turning Actaeon into a stag; a group of figures, suggested by De Winter to show Lucretia [Check against the same scene shown on other caskets, eg W.23-1953]; the Judgement of Paris.

Construction
The casket consists of 5 sawn boards, the front and back nailed to the sides (these boards 8-9mm thick), and the bottom apparently nailed and glued up to the four sides. The lid (a single board, with moulded edge, 11mm thick) is held on two iron wire staple hinges. The four turned feet are nailed to the underside of the bottom with 3 cut iron nails and one modern wire nail. From examination and analysis of other, similar caskets it appears that several layers of gesso sottile were applied to the wood, and over the whole surface a bole layer under gold leaf. The applied reliefs probably consist of a white lead and egg white mix pressed into moulds (of lead), and sometimes with some hand modelling, and applied with animal glue.

Modifications and losses
Numerous losses to the moulded ornament. The lid has warped. One section of lid moulding has detached (2011). The sprung catch is presumed to have been added. The feet may be additions (pending examination of the gilding, 2011). The red paint appears to have been added after the moulded decoration was added.

This item was lot 40 in a sale of sculpture and objets d'art in the collections of Alessandro Castellani on 7th and 8th April 1879, at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris. It was bought by the South Kensington Museum for £69 - 4 - 3 (£69.21).

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)

Attributed by Patrick M. de Winter to the Workshop of the Amor-Ecouen Casket

Gilt-wood boxes, decorated with scented lead-based paste (pasta di muschio) and illustrated with classical myths and legends, were popular throughout Italy between about 1470 and 1570. They were mostly made in Venice and Ferrara.

The decoration of this example includes the stories of Trajan and the Widow (on the back) and Gaius Mucius Scaevola (on the front). According to legend, the emperor Trajan is said to have been so just that he put his own son to death for killing the son of a widow, and Gaius Mucius burned his right hand in a fire after failing to assassinate Lars Porsena, king of the Etruscans and a sworn enemy of Rome.

This box at one time belonged to Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883), a fashionable jeweller from Rome who specialised in reproducing pieces inspired by Etruscan and Roman archaeological finds. The South Kensington Museum acquired this box after a sale of part of his collections in Paris in April 1879.

95-1879