MARRIAGE CHEST
carved, sculpted and partially gilt wood
The peculiarity of this precious chest consists of the fact that its front features two squares with figurative images, and more precisely motifs from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The first square on the left shows Phaeton and his mother Clymene before Helios, god of the Sun, who implores his father Apollo to grant him to use his carriage for his inauspicious flight. The square to the right, on the contrary, features the two lovers Daphne and Apollo, the latter on the right, before a classical building. Both relieves were part of a tradition of decorations of chests in Rome in the second half of the Sixteenth century: the Victoria and Albert Museum in London vaunts a pair of chests made in 1570 for the wedding of Paolo Lancellotti and Giulia Delfini (inv. 4416-1857, 4417- 1857) which feature, along with others inspired by the same myth – evidently based on the same drawings – the same scenes illustrated in this piece. Both the chests in London and this one feature two panoplies on the sides.
The design clearly echoes classical sculpture and architecture. The sarcophagus form with vivacious carvings in high relief is spaced on the front by herms and decorated with rosettes and festoons. The coat of arms of the family ordering the chest, perhaps originally painted, is placed in the centre, between two sphinxes. The lid, shaped as an urn, is decorated by an alter- nation of leaf motifs, placed above rosettes and festoons centred by a mascaron with wide open jaws. Lion’s paw feet.
Rome, second half of the 16th century
cm 61x157x60
