Around the year 1416 in the city of Florence the “Master of the Jarves Cassone" was born. Little is known about Apollonio di Giovanni’s private life, but his works remain influential masterpieces to this day. He trained in the circle of exceptionally skilled illuminators and miniaturists like Bartolomeo di Fruosino and Battista di Biagio Sanguini . Giovanni’s place in this circle allowed him to join the Guild of St Luke around 1442. Through this association Giovanni meets a fellow artist named Marco del Buono and together they run the most important workshop in fifteenth-century. They produced decorated furniture panels (‘cassoni’, wedding chests, ‘deschi da parto’, birth trays, ‘spalliere’, wainscotting) as well as illuminated manuscripts
…show more content…
Since child birth and marriage were richly celebrated a number of objects were made to honor these rituals. These objects often had the family crest displayed and were usually painted with mythological, classical, or literary themes, as well as scenes of domesticity. Wealthy families used these pieces to display their material bounty, fine artistic taste, and humanist learning. The wedding chests were used to transport the wedding goods—dowry and groom gifts—during the wedding procession and to store them once the bride and groom had settled into their new home. The wooden birth tray played a utilitarian as well as celebratory role in commemorating a child’s birth. It was covered with a special cloth to function as a service tray for the mother during confinement and later displayed on the wall as a memento of the special occasion. It was also sometimes given to the first born of a family and passed down to generations. The reverse of the birth tray, The Triumph of Chasity, is painted with the arms of the wealthy Florentine Samminiato and Gianfigliazzi families. It commemorates a marriage that took place in 1537, long after the date of its manufacture; presumably it was originally made for a member of one of these families, whose original arms may have been overpainted in 1537 when the birth tray, by now a precious heirloom, was reworked …show more content…
Cupid’s triumph is followed by the triumph of Chasity over cupid and fickle fortune, illustrating Laura’s chaste and proper refusal of Petrarch’s love (she was a married woman, after all.). The third float in the procession illustrates the awful triumph of death over Laura during the plague; the fourth, the triumph of Laura’s bright fame over grime death; the fifth, the inevitable triumph of Old-Man Time over Laura’s fame; and the sixth, and ultimate triumph, the triumph of eternity over time, in which Laura and Petrarch are finally able to enjoy everlasting bliss
Since child birth and marriage were richly celebrated a number of objects were made to honor these rituals. These objects often had the family crest displayed and were usually painted with mythological, classical, or literary themes, as well as scenes of domesticity. Wealthy families used these pieces to display their material bounty, fine artistic taste, and humanist learning. The wedding chests were used to transport the wedding goods—dowry and groom gifts—during the wedding procession and to store them once the bride and groom had settled into their new home. The wooden birth tray played a utilitarian as well as celebratory role in commemorating a child’s birth. It was covered with a special cloth to function as a service tray for the mother during confinement and later displayed on the wall as a memento of the special occasion. It was also sometimes given to the first born of a family and passed down to generations. The reverse of the birth tray, The Triumph of Chasity, is painted with the arms of the wealthy Florentine Samminiato and Gianfigliazzi families. It commemorates a marriage that took place in 1537, long after the date of its manufacture; presumably it was originally made for a member of one of these families, whose original arms may have been overpainted in 1537 when the birth tray, by now a precious heirloom, was reworked …show more content…
Cupid’s triumph is followed by the triumph of Chasity over cupid and fickle fortune, illustrating Laura’s chaste and proper refusal of Petrarch’s love (she was a married woman, after all.). The third float in the procession illustrates the awful triumph of death over Laura during the plague; the fourth, the triumph of Laura’s bright fame over grime death; the fifth, the inevitable triumph of Old-Man Time over Laura’s fame; and the sixth, and ultimate triumph, the triumph of eternity over time, in which Laura and Petrarch are finally able to enjoy everlasting bliss