Casket
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Bronze sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 16
- Inventory
- PV 09263
- Material and technique
- Bronze, natural patina with traces of lacquer
- Author
- Paduan School
- Dating
- Early 16th century
- Dimensions
- 10 x 22.7 x 13.5 cm.
- Origin
- Barsanti Collection (1934)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
This jewel box is decorated by two identical reliefs on its longer sides, and two on its shorter sides. Two centaurs, carrying half-naked nymphs on their backs, are depicted on the front and back; they face each other and move toward the centre, each holding a tall cornucopia, full of fruit, whose edges touch to form a garland around a crest that depicts an elephant. This crest suggests the box might have belonged to the Malatesta family, although the manner in which the elephant is figured is not typical of the family’s heraldic symbol. In other examples of such boxes, classical busts, both male and female, tend to appear in the middle of the garland, prominently sculpted in high relief. The casket was long considered to be a classical work, and was published as such in 18th century tracts. At first it was thought to be by a Paduan artist, since the centaurs show distinct similarities to those that appear on Riccio’s Paschal Candelabrum in the Basilica del Santo in Padua. Later Adolfo Venturi (1903) and Bode (1921-22) attributed the centaurs to Cristoforo Caradosso, though Bode later felt it also showed the hand of Bramante. Attributions have been made to various other artists too, including Desiderio da Firenze (Planiscig 1930-31) and a follower of Donatello (Pollak 1922), while Pope-Hennessey (1965) saw elements of the work of Severo da Ravenna. Taking all such opinions into account, the work can be attributed to a Paduan artist of the early 16th century.
Pietro Cannata
Bibliography
L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), catalogue of the collection, Bergamo 1922, no. 36 p. 53; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 39; H. R. Weihrauch, Die Bildwerke in Bronze und in anderen Metallen, München 1956, no. 98 p.72-73.