Marco del Buono Giamberti (Italian, Florentine, 1402–1489); Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso (Italian, Florentine, 1415/17–1465)
Tempera, gold, and silver on wood
39 1/2 x 77 x 32 7/8 in. (100.3 x 195.6 x 83.5 cm)
Inscriptions: GO[N]STANTINOPOLI; S FRA[N]CES/CO; S. SOFIA; DEILO.PER . . . ORI; PERA; LOSTRETTO; LOSCUTARIO; CHASTEL NVOVO; TREBIZOND[A]; TAN[B]VRLANA
John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1914 (14.39)
Many questions about this highly significant Renaissance cassone, or marriage chest, remain to be answered. Its principal elements were likely constructed in the workshop of Marco del Buono and Apollonio di Giovanni, whose artists and craftsmen produced many of the most elaborate and interesting wedding cassoni in mid-fifteenth century Florence. Devices of the Strozzi family—a falcon and the inscription mezze—adorn the sides of the chest, and it has long been thought to have been made to celebrate a Strozzi marriage of about 1460 and may originally have been in the Strozzi palace.
The fascinating depiction of a battle involving the Ottoman Turks and taking place—impossibly—before both cities of Constantinople and Trebizond has been the subject of many interpretations. It most likely refers to the fall of Trebizond on the Black Sea to the Ottoman empire in 1461, although the depiction of the Mongol emperor Tamerlane, seated at the far right, leaves open the possibility that it depicts his great victory over the Turks at Ankara in 1402. The Florentine interest in these events had to do with their extensive mercantile concerns in the area, especially in Constantinople.
Related
Index Terms
Artist
- Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso (Italian, Florentine, 1414/17–1465)
- Marco del Buono Giamberti (Italian, Florentine, 1402–1489)
Geography/Place
Material and Technique
- Painting, Tempera on Wood
- Wood, Furniture
- Wood, Furniture, Europe
- Wood, Furniture, Europe, Italian Peninsula
- Wood, Gessoed
- Wood, Gilded
- Wood, Painted
- Wood, Panelled
- Wood, Poplar
