Artwork Page for Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence

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Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence

1418

Giovanni Francesco Toscani

(Italian, c. 1380–1430)
Culture
Italy, Florence, 15th century
Medium
tempera and gold on wood
Measurements
Framed: 46.5 x 143.5 x 7 cm (18 5/16 x 56 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.); Unframed: 42.1 x 139.5 cm (16 9/16 x 54 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Holden Collection 1916.801
Public Domain
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Location
117A Italian Renaissance
Print

Description

A cassone was a wooden chest used for the storage of clothing, an essential piece of furniture in Italian homes during the Renaissance and often produced in matched sets. The cassone was often made on the occasion of a marriage and elaborately decorated with painted scenes and gilded moldings. This panel comes from such a painted cassone. It was not uncommon for the painted decoration to represent a memorable event at the time of the marriage. This scene depicts the end of the Palio, a horse race held in the streets of Florence on the Feast of John the Baptist (June 24). The panel from the other side of the cassone is now preserved in the Bargello Museum in Florence and shows the procession of the Palii banners before the race. The cassone commemorates a wedding between members of the Fini and Aldobrandini families in 1418.
Horizontally long tempera painted panel with jockeys riding white and brown horses to the left with people with light skin tones wearing red-orange, light-orange, and dark-blue robes gathering along the edges of the street. Across the background extend squared grey buildings with red-brown roofs and rows of arched windows out of which lean more viewers. The scene is intercepted by gilded triangles at each corner, decorated by foliage patterns with a fleur-de-lis in the center.

Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence

1418

Giovanni Francesco Toscani

(Italian, c. 1380–1430)
Italy, Florence, 15th century

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