Collection

The Triumphs of Fame, Time, and Eternity, ca. 1450, Francesco Pesellino (Italian, Florence, 1422–1457), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Left
  • The Triumphs of Fame, Time, and Eternity, ca. 1450, Francesco Pesellino (Italian, Florence, 1422–1457), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
  • The Triumphs of Love, Chastity, and Death, ca. 1450, Francesco Pesellino (Italian, Florence, 1422–1457), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
  • Marcus Furius Camillus Brings Statue of Juno to Rome, early 1470s, Biagio D’Antonio (Florence, 1446-1516) and workshop, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection
  • The Coronation of Frederick III in Rome, ca. 1460, Lo Scheggia (Florence, 1406–1486), Worcester Art Museum
  • Tarquin and Tanaquil Entering Rome, ca1470, Jacopo del Sellaio (Florence, 1432–1493), The Cleveland Museum of Art
  • The Triumph of Scipio Africanus, ca. 1470, Lo Scheggia (Florence, 1406–1486), The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Bequest of John Ringling
  • The Triumph of Venus, ca. 1500, Florentine painter (called Pseudo-Granacci), The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Right
 

The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance

October 16, 2008-January 19, 2009

In Renaissance Italy, cassoni –Italian for “large chests” – were an essential part of the rituals of elite marriages. Made in pairs and often painted with historical and allegorical scenes, these chests were paraded through the streets, like trophies, when the bride moved into the house of her new husband. The narrative paintings with which they were decorated linked marriage to history and the roles appropriate to husband and wife. Cassoni offered artists an opportunity to develop new subjects in new formats, fusing space and time in consecutive scenes; dramatizing conflicts between love and duty; and almost always concluding with a vision of triumphant harmony.

The exhibition and its programs are supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. The Triumph of Marriage will travel to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, where it will be on view beginning February 2009. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.