(Florence circa 1415/17–1465)
The Triumph of the Consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus,
tempera and gold on panel, a cassone front, 39.5 x 155.7 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, England, until 2015;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

This work was originally the front panel of a nuptial chest, a cassone, a large wooden container decorated with paintings that was used to store linen and other personal belongings. It was traditional for such furnishings to be carried in a procession to the home of newlyweds to be placed in a bridal chamber.

Cassoni were widespread in Northern and Central Italy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century and were especially popular in Florence. They became particularly sought after by collectors and museums, both in Europe and the United States from the nineteenth century onwards.

The painted decoration on cassoni usually depicted historical events, particularly battles and episodes taken from mythology and classical literature, as well as from medieval novels, literary allegories and religious themes. The subject of a triumph, as depicted on the present panel, was a popular choice for the decoration of cassoni, and was also often depicted on deschi da parto, large decorated trays that were offered to women after childbirth. The choice of this iconography was linked to the prevailing humanist culture and the interest in revisiting the glory of ancient Rome. The subject matter also emphasised the importance and nobility of the bride and groom’s families and augmented the customs and prestige of wedding processions.

The present panel depicts the Triumph of the Consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus after the battle of Pidna in Thessaly, which took place in 168 BC. The battle marked the final defeat of the Macedonian dynasty, a kingdom which was then divided by Rome into four republics. After attempting to escape, King Perseus surrendered himself to Lucius Aemilius Paullus and as a prisoner, stripped of his royal robes; he is depicted on the chariot of the victor in the present painting. The iconographic theme is uncommon, and this work is a particularly significant example, due to its quality of execution and the richness of the decorative elements. Another cassone with a similar subject is conserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and other similar works by Apollonio are documented in private collections (see E. Callmann, Apollonio di Giovanni, Oxford 1974, p.75, cat.no.58, fig.274).

In the present painting the triumphal procession proceeds from left to right and is set against a wide hilly coastal landscape, with the city of Pidna in the centre, fortified by towered walls; the sea is animated by several ships, and there are forts on the hills. The main focus of the composition is the victor’s golden chariot on which, as aforementioned, King Perseus is sitting in front of the Roman Consul, dressed in a simple white tunic. Another chariot preceding him is laden with the booty of precious objects and furnishings. They are surrounded by a crowd of warriors, on foot and on horseback wielding swords and spears, as well as dignitaries and servants, all of them richly attired.

The high-ranking patronage of the chest is emphasised not only by the subject, which could only be interpreted by those with a classical knowledge, but also by the extensive use of gold leaf, with which the decorative elements of the robes and weapons are embellished: belts, embroidered borders of robes, crests, plumes, sword hilts, harnesses of mounts, the spoils on the triumphant’s chariot: all contributing to creating a narrative of marked courtly taste. 

The stylistic quality of the work confirms its attribution to Apollonio di Giovanni, who is one of the most well-documented and celebrated artists of this type of art production in mid-Quattrocento Florence. He is documented as the head, together with Marco del Buono, of a flourishing workshop specialised in the production of painted cassoni. He was in contact with contemporary currents of humanistic thought, which explain the preference for certain iconographic themes (see W. Stechow, Marco del Buono and Apollonio di Giovanni, Cassone Painters, in: Bulletin of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, vol. I, June 1944, pp. 5–21; and E. Callmann, op. cit).

His painterly style is characterised by an elegant and precious ductus that places him among the best interpreters of the early Florentine Renaissance still imbued with the formal refinement of late Gothic painting. In particular, the present work can be compared to a pair of cassone fronts by Apollonio in the Royal Castle of Wawel in Cracow (National Art Collections, inv. no. 7928/7929).The present work can also be compared with other cassoni by Apollonio, such as the Battle between the Athenians and the Persians (Xerses’s invasion of Greece) in the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, USA and the two panels with Scenes from the Aeneid in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. The present work can be dated to the master’s fully mature period, around the middle of the 15th century.
 

Technical entry by Gianluca Poldi:

The painting has regained its overall chromatic quality after recent cleaning and restoration taking into account the particularity of the technique and the passage of time, with the wear due to the use of the cassone. The play of light on the variously engraved and painted metal sheets that embellish this work are created by the surfaces in gold and silver or tin leaf (today darkened) applied on a red bole base. The paint, showing a diffuse presence of small holes due to air bubbles, is applied over a white ground, probably gesso, covered by a lead white priming.

The IR reflectograms show few traces of underdrawing, only the outline, while the painter's abundant use of incisions of the edges of the figures is evident, not only at the margin of the gilded parts. No changes during execution were revealed through the reflectograms and radiograms, while the latter showed the existence of two oblique wooden pegs at the right and left ends of the table, used for joining the two long horizontal boards, about 3 cm thick, of which the support is made.

The study of the original pigments, carried out by non-invasive visible reflectance spectroscopy and digital microscopy, is particularly interesting, showing the use of azurite in the blue areas of the sky, the sea and the clothes. Azurite, at least in the sky and in the sea, appears to be quite impure because of the presence of malachite; both these copper carbonates are ground quite coarsely. Brown earth grains are also mixed in the sky and in the sea, together with lead white. The mountains, currently quite dark, were originally brighter, better showing the contrast between a higher amount of malachite in lighter areas and the verdigris added to reach darker hues. An alternation of mixtures of malachite, verdigris and lead-tin yellow is employed in the crowns of the trees of the woodlands, represented in the background on the right and left of the composition. Verdigris and malachite are also employed together in the stylised soil herbs.

Red colours are made of vermillion in brighter tones and in the pink buildings of the port, while a coccid-derived red lake was used in the pinkish hues of the clothes. Flesh tones are prepared with a first layer of lead white containing green earth particles and finished with a thin mixture of lead white and finely ground vermillion. The peculiar yellow tone of the long suit of the man in the foreground preceding the left wagon is obtained not simply by the abundant use of lead yellow, but also by the tone obtained by adding small percentages of azurite and malachite. The shaded folds, on the other hand, have a glaze containing highly ground brown ochre on the surface.