Stunning Large Cassone A Pastiglia, Tuscany Circa 1460

Haute Epoque

Exceptional and very large Cassone, Renaissance wedding chest, XVth century -around 1460, decorated in pastiglia, Italy, region of Florence (Tuscany) with several shields / coat of arms, and specially those of the family SEGARDI-CRISTOFORI

Built in oak and poplar
Decoration a pastiglia polychrome, hand painted and gilded with seated lions, surrounded by flowering branches or trees, in reserves framed by a lozenge mesh, on the front and sides.

In XVth century in Italy, elaborate chests and boxes, decorated in relief a pastiglia white, gradually replaced the painted chests, in ivory or boiled leather, which aroused European elites interest.

"Pastiglia (from the Italian meaning "pastille"), is a bas-relief decoration, modeled in gesso or white lead forming a support that can be gilded, painted, or left as it is. The technique was used in different ways during the Renaissance in Italy.
The term is mainly associated with work on gilded frames or small pieces of furniture such as wooden boxes and cassoni, as well as on panel paintings.
On frames and furniture, the technique is originally a cheap imitation of wood, ironwork or ivory carving techniques. The "Gesso pastiglia" is mainly found in Italy from the XIVth to the XVIth century on larger pieces of furniture such as cassone and on frames painted more in gilded gesso than in white lead pastiglia.
The gesso pastiglia was very widely used on cassoni since the XIVth century. The first decorations were serial patterns, derived from drawings on fabrics."


Eight armored shields or coats of arms on the pillars of the main façade (2) and sides (4); in the center of the sides panels a shield surmounted by a pocketed helmet of armor. The lid takes up in the middle this same thema by simplifying it with in the center of the lid a shield of larger size surmounting a phylactery bearing a Latin inscription, worn and difficult to read.
Nice registers decorated in sewing mesh on the top and the three main sides.

Condition: the oak plaster oldly redone (XVth cty?), some wear and tear, restorations
Geniune Lock and its original key.

Sizes: 186cm length * 67cm depth * 71cmheight

Please see on 2 last photos:
-cassone front from the Isabella STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, in BOSTON USA, with exactly the same gilded decoration a pastiglia of leopards in a lozenge trellis
-cassone a pastiglia golden depicting eagles in a similar mesh, from the Robert LEHMAN collection at the Metropolitan Museum in New York

*Expertise laurence FLIGNY in Paris

*Bibliography:
"Pastigliakätschen", NY, 1995
"The stamp - The object of art": the Ecouen Castle collection of pastiglia boxes, October 2012

*Museums:
Ecouen, V.A. London, Philadelphia, Florence or Siena...