The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

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

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

1418
(Italian, c. 1380–1430)
Italy, Florence, 15th century
tempera and gold on wood
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.)
Holden Collection 1916.801
Location: 117A Italian Renaissance

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.
  • Marchese Bartolini-Salimbeni (1741); Pitti coll., Florence (1798); James Jackson Jarves (1884); Mrs. Liberty E. Holden
  • Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 22-23, cat. no. 17; Reproduced: p. 56, No. 17 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Louise d' Argencourt, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 45, p. 127 - 129
    Martin Nagy, Rebecca. Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1985. p. 47, 59
    Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Italian Paintings from the 13th to 15th Century. Firenze, Italy: Polistampa, 2009. Mentioned: p. 135-136, no. 3
    Starnina, Gherardo, Roland Krischke, and Benjamin Rux. Gherardo Starnina: Cassone-Tafel mit dem Kampf orientalischer Reiter : Restaurierung und Forschung. Altenburg : Lindenau-Museum, 2017. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 30-31, fig. 3
    Jaser, Christian. "Beyond Siena: The Palio Culture of Renaisance Italy." Ludica: annali di storia e civiltà del gioco. 23, (2017): 24-34. Reproduced: p. 27, fig. 2
    Dobson, Chris. Beaten Black and Blue: The Myth of the Medieval Knight in Shining Armour. Sant'Albano Stura, Italy: Chris Dobson, 2023. Reproduced: p. 71, fig. 72
  • Textiles in Daily Life in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 22-March 17, 1985).
    Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971).
    Gothic Art 1360-1440. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 6-September 15, 1963).
    Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).
  • {{cite web|title=Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence|url=false|author=Giovanni Francesco Toscani|year=1418|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.801