Marriage Chest (Cassone) (early 1500s): Art, History and Details

Marriage Chest (Cassone) (early 1500s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Large storage chests resembling ancient Roman burial vaults-a popular collectible among wealthy families during the Renaissance-were often associated with an important marriage and contained the wife’s dowry of clothes and precious objects. This particular example displays the arms of the Spada Family of Rome amidst a richly carved façade on a gilded ground. Sometimes cassoni were carried in the marital procession from the bride’s home to that of her future husband, emphasizing the power and wealth of both families.

Object facts

• Title: Marriage Chest (Cassone)
• Date: early 1500s
• Culture: Italy, early 16th century
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: walnut with traces of gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 62.2 x 172 x 55.9 cm (24 1/2 x 67 11/16 x 22 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1942.609

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• John Long Severance Art Collection Photographs: Furniture, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Milliken, William M., Gertrude Underhill, and Jean Mailey. "Department of Decorative Arts." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (November 1942): 137-151.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.