Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Birth Tray (Desco da Parto) with the Triumph of Chastity (recto) and Naked Boys with Poppy Pods (verso)
Workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso Italian
Not on view
Clearly inspired by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch’s elaborate allegory in which the voyage of life is described as a series of "Triumphs," this tray, painted to mark the birth of a child, may seem to represent pure poetic fantasy. Such processions were, however, sometimes staged in European cities. Naked boys like those seen on the reverse are a fairly common, and playful, note in Renaissance painting.
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