An Italian Renaissance carved walnut, fruitwood and oak inlaid intarsia cassone in the manner of Domenico del Tasso, Florence, circa 1500

the associated central panel with view of an ideal city, on a later plinth base

Stefano Bardini, Florence, around 1900;

Semenzato Venezia, Gli Arredi dell'Abbazia di San Gregorio, 28 November 2002, lot 365.

RELATED LITERATURE

E. Callmann, “William Blundell Spence and the Transformation of Renaissance Cassoni”, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 141, no. 1155 (June 1999), pp. 338-48;

W. M. Odom, A History of Italian Furniture, New York, 1966;

R. Ferrazza, Palazzo Davanzati e le collezioni di Elia Volpi, Florence, 1994;

A. Pedrini, Italian Furniture Interiors and Decoration of the Fifeenth and Sixteenth Century, London, 1949;

M. Tinti, Il Mobilio Fiorentino, Milan-Rome;

A. Bacchi, A. De Marchi (eds.), La galleria di Palazzo Cini, Venice, 2016, pp. 329-32;

A. Wilmering, “Domenico di Niccolò, Mattia di Nanni and the development of Sienese intarsia techniques”, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 139, no. 1131, June 1997, pp. 376-97;

A. Wilmering, “The Conservation Treatment of the Gubbio Studiolo”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Spring 1996, pp. 36-56.

This very impressive cassone, with exceptional carving and intarsia, is in good conserved condition. It displays overall losses to the geometric intarsia, and traces of old woodworm, which seems to be no longer active. The moulded plinth is a replacement, and the side handles, probably from the same period, are associated. The intarsia panel with marks of old woodworm and minor losses. Small losses to carving on the corners. Shrinkage crack to left side panel. It has one key. A full report by Dr Simone Chiarugi is available on request..
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This extraordinary cassone well exemplifies a sought-after, highly important typology of furniture that was to be found in the most patrician palaces and villas of the Florentine gentry. Together with the credenza, which however developed later, the chest or cassone - was in fact the most important piece of furniture at the time, often commissioned to celebrate a marriage, and used to house precious textiles.

Its sarcophagus shape belies the growing interest in Roman antiquities that spread in Florence from the last decades of the 15^th century, and which followed earlier architectural models, largely gilt and inset with painted boards.

The present cassone is one of the finest of a series, bearing witness to the extraordinary fortune of this design which appears to have originated within the Florentine workshop of the Del Tasso family, and is traditionally associated with the bancone by Domenico and Chimenti Del Tasso (1490-1493) for the Sala dell’Udienza of the Collegio del Cambio, Perugia (ill. in Tinti, op. cit., fig. XLII, reproduced here in fig. 1), with its distinctive s-scrolled rosaces centred by a shield flanked by finely carved wings. This motif is also found on the choir stall in the Magi Chapel at Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, whilst a comparable carving can be seen in the benches of the choir of the Chiesa della Badia, Florence (fig. 2).

The intarsia panels adorning the front of the present piece, probably inserted at a later date, testify to the fashionable trend for inserting pictorial fields or intarsia within existing cassoni, (see Callmann, op. cit., p. 338).

A cassone of nearly identical design is now in the Fondazione Cini, Venice, sharing a similar carved framework inset with an architectural intarsia panel. Another identically carved cassone, albeit with an empty central panel, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (ill. in Catalogus van Meubelen, Amsterdam, 1952, afb. 11, cat. no. 380, p. 280). Finally, a cassone attributed to the Del Tasso workshop sold Sotheby's Milan, Salvatore e Francesco Romano. Antiquari a Firenze, 12-15 October 2009, lot 624 (102,750 EUR).

Sotheby's would like to thank Dr Simone Chiarugi for his assistance in researching and cataloguing this lot.