Panel with reliefs of the Condemnation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from Paradise and Labours of Adam and Eve thumbnail 1
Panel with reliefs of the Condemnation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from Paradise and Labours of Adam and Eve thumbnail 2
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On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Panel with reliefs of the Condemnation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from Paradise and Labours of Adam and Eve

Chest Front
ca. 1408-1415 (made)
Artist/Maker
Ghiberti, Lorenzo (circle of)
Donatello (circle of)
Florentine
Place of origin
Florence (made)

The three reliefs of Adam and Eve constitute one of the most unusual and important early purchases by the South Kensington Museum, the forerunner of the V&A. They formed part of a block acquisition of 89 pieces of sculpture and majolica. These came from two collections assembled by Ottavio Gigli and Giovan Pietro Campana during the period 1825-50.

These three reliefs are related to another of the Creation of Eve, which is now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence. We think that they are the only surviving pieces of a series concerning the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. The complete set may have numbered six, if there were also panels of the Creation of Adam and the Temptation.

Object details

Categories
Religion
Marriage
Sculpture
Furniture
Containers
Renaissance (Italian)
Medieval and Renaissance
Object type
Chest front
TitlePanel with reliefs of the Condemnation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from Paradise and Labours of Adam and Eve (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Terracotta covered with a lead glaze and traces of gilt mounted on wood
Terracotta
Wood
Glazing
Gilding
Brief description
Chest front, 'Panel with reliefs of the Condemnation of Adam and Eve, Expulsion from Paradise and Labours of Adam and Eve', glazed terracotta in a gilt wooden panel, Florentine, circle of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello, Florence, ca. 1408-1415.
Physical description
Three octagonal terracotta reliefs mounted on the front of a wooden chest. The orange-brown reliefs depict: The Condemnation of Adam & Eve, the Expulsion from Paradise and the Labours of Adam and Eve. The wooden surround has been decorated with gesso and gilt and there are traces of coats of arms on shields at either end.
Dimensions
  • Height: 58.4cm
  • Width: 168.9cm
  • Depth: 7cm
Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Style
Florentine
Gallery label
(2008)
Above
FRONT OF A MARRIAGE CHEST (CASSONE) with scenes from the Old Testament
About 1415
Workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455)

This fragment from a marriage chest incorporates small-scale terracotta reliefs. They represent a type of sculpture developed by Ghiberti while working on the first of his famous sets of bronze doors for the Florentine Baptistery. The reliefs show scenes of the Fall of Man. Marriage chests often depicted stories from the Bible or classical literature but they were usually painted not sculpted.

Italy, Florence

Wood, with glazed terracotta reliefs with traces of gilding

Museum no. 7613-1861
Object history
Purchased from the Gigli-Campana Collection in 1861
Subjects depicted
Disobedience
Angel
Adam
Eve
God
Literary referenceGenesis 3:8-24.
Summary
The three reliefs of Adam and Eve constitute one of the most unusual and important early purchases by the South Kensington Museum, the forerunner of the V&A. They formed part of a block acquisition of 89 pieces of sculpture and majolica. These came from two collections assembled by Ottavio Gigli and Giovan Pietro Campana during the period 1825-50.

These three reliefs are related to another of the Creation of Eve, which is now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence. We think that they are the only surviving pieces of a series concerning the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve. The complete set may have numbered six, if there were also panels of the Creation of Adam and the Temptation.
Bibliographic references
  • Motture, Peta, ed., Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance, London: V&A Publishing, 2023. cat. 1.9, p. 116, entry by Laura Chase and Peta Motture Attribution: Florentine (circle of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello)
  • Caglioti, Francesco, ed., with Laura Cavazzini, Aldo Galli, and Neville Rowley. Donatello: il Rinascimento, Venice: Marsilio, 2022. fig. 1, pp. 118-119 (Aldo Galli) Attribution: Donatello (and florentine woodworker)
  • Boucher, Bruce, (ed.), Earth and Fire, Italian Sculpture from Donatello to Canova New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2001
  • Gentilini, Giancarlo. ed. I Della Robbia, La Scultura invetriata nel Rinascimento. Florence: 1992, p. 27, 152 notes 64-69
  • Raggio, Olga. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Art Bulletin. Vol. L, 1968, p. 100
  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Volume I: Text. Eighth to Fifteenth Century. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1964, pp. 57-59
  • Maclagan, Eric and Longhurst, Margaret H. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture. Text. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 12
  • Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1861 In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 29
Collection
Sculpture Collection
Accession number
7613-1861

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Record createdJanuary 22, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89926/panel-with-reliefs-of-the-chest-front-ghiberti-lorenzo/
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