{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O122580"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O122580/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BG9481/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BG9481/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BG9481","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JR9355","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O122580/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O122580","accessionNumber":"5757-1859","objectType":"Box","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"This box was made in about 1450. Its cylindrical shape and the lavish gilding suggest that it was used for storing an expensive hat or elaborate headdress. Similar gilt gesso decoration was used on <i>cassoni</i> or storage chests made in Italy at the same time. The decoration is more in keeping with gothic scrolling and heraldry than with the revived interest in classical myths that was one of the hallmarks of the Renaissance. The wood may have been cheap but the decoration was expensive and the aim no doubt was to enhance the status of the owner.","physicalDescription":"Gilt gesso cylindrical box, decortated on the sides with 6 medallions of a reclining stag, and decorated with scolls of painted carnations.The lid is decorated with carnation scrolls, linking two reclining stag medallions with two coats of arms, one of a rampant bull on the left and one of six rocks and a crucifix on the right, both identified by W.H.Pollen with Buondelmonte family.  The edge of the lid is decorated with beading and its side with encircled gilt gesso stars (or 6 lobed flowers) with carnation scrolls in between. In the centre of the lid is an empty space and a square hole. Presumably it was originally fitted with a knob or pommel to help lift the lid. The box is made up of a pliable strip of wood, wound round a disc-like base and nailed into position.Note that the gilded surface is enhanced with punch work.\r\n\r\nLined with green silk over gesso. The underside of the bottom is gilded, with punched decoration of scrolling foliage (similar to textile patterns). There is no evidence that feet were once attached.\r\n\r\nNote\r\nThe lid rim is 2mm thick, the box rim 5mm. The rim looks like poplar or willow. There is an in-fill repair (22cm) around the rim, where silk lining has been removed.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"gold leaf","id":"x33207"},{"text":"gesso","id":"AAT14952"},{"text":"iron","id":"AAT11002"},{"text":"glaze","id":"AAT15091"}],"techniques":[{"text":"nailing","id":"AAT53017"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"moulding","id":"AAT53134"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wood, covered with gilt gesso decoration and partly painted in glaze","categories":[{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Medieval and renaissance","id":"THES271264"}],"styles":[{"text":"Renaissance","id":"AAT21140"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2006BG9481","2017JR9355"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"64 (VA)","id":"THES49735"},"free":"","case":"2","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"64 (VA)","id":"THES49735"},"free":"","case":"2","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Box","id":""}],[{"text":"Lid","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Florence","id":"x28848"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1460","earliest":"1455-01-01","latest":"1464-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"14.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"34.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"1.68","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"This object was purchased by the South Kensington Museum for 16 shillings 8 pence, but the provenance remains unknown. It does not seem to have been part of the Jules Soulages Collection.\n\nLent to the exhibition Love and Marriage in Italian Renaissance Art, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nov. 11 2008 to Feb. 16, 2009","historicalContext":"A number of gilt circular boxes, dating from about 1450, are to be found in museum collections. Although they are made from less costly woods and assembled in a simple way,  they are lavishly decorated with gilt gesso, much like <i>cassoni</i> of this period. Although they have not been precisely identified in inventories and their function can only be guessed at, it seems most likely they were used for storing expensive hats and head-dresses. A design possibly intended for this sort of item is in the collections of the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna.\n\nOn the sociological and symbolic aspects of Italian Renaissance boxes of this type (and others) see, for example, Adrian Randolph, <i>Touching Objects</i> (2014), chapter 3\r\n","briefDescription":"Wooden box, cylindrica, with gilt gesso decoration; Italy; 15th century","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ancient and Modern Furniture & Woodwork in the South Kensington Museum, described with an introduction by John Hungerford Pollen, (London, 1874), pp.29-30.\r\n\"Box, with Cover. Gilt stucco on wood, circular, with foliated ornament and medallions, containing stags and shields of arms. Italian. First half of 15th century. \r\nH. 5 ¾ in., diam. 13 ¼ in. Bought, 16 s. 8d.\r\nThis is in small a specimen of the gilt gesso ornamentation of which the department has so many fine specimens in the form of Cassones, marriage and sacristy callers. The decorations are scroll foliage, ending in the flowers of the pink, coloured to nature. There are medallions on the fides containing a hart laid up in a field vert (green). The arms, in medallions on the top, consist of a hart rampant, and in the other shield a cross issuing from a mound or rock. These are the Buon- delmonte bearings. The branch foliations are simple and boldly designed, and helped out with bookbinders’ tooling. The box is lined with green silk.\"        \r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Peter Thornton: <i>  Form & Decoration. Innovation in the Decorative Arts, 1470 - 1870</i>, (London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1998), pp. 12, 16."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tra/E, Teche, pissidi, cofani e forzieri dall’Alto Medioevo al Barocco, a cura di Pietro Lorenzelli e Alberto Veca. Ott.-Dic. 1984, Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo; p.112"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Frida Schottmüller, <u>Furniture and Interior Decoration of the Italian Renaissance</u>, (Julius Hoffman: Stuttgart), fig. 35."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Flora Dennis, <i>At Home in Renaissance Italy</i>, London: V&A Publishing, 2006, cat. 119, p.359 \"Box with the arms of the Buondelmonte family of Florence, Florence c.1460\", plate 5.2 (p.79); in the same volume, Anna Bellavitis and Isabelle Chabot, 'People and Property in Florence and Venice', pp.76-85"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Andrea Bayer (ed.), <i>Art and Love in Renaissance Italy</i> (New York, New Haven, 2008), no. 38b; the catalogue of the exhibition of the same name at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nov. 11 2008 - Feb. 16, 2009, and the Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, March 15 to June 14, 2009"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"stags","id":"x30301"},{"text":"carnations","id":"x30499"},{"text":"scrolls","id":"AAT10094"},{"text":"medallions","id":"AAT77354"},{"text":"bull","id":"x30279"},{"text":"coat of arms","id":"AAT126352"},{"text":"crucifix","id":"AAT248835"},{"text":"rocks","id":"AAT11692"},{"text":"beading","id":"AAT54013"},{"text":"stars","id":"AAT9811"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Box with the Arms of the Buondelmonte Family\r\nAbout 1460\r\n\r\nSmall boxes were used in the rituals of betrothal or marriage. This exquisite box bears the arms of the Florentine Buondelmonte family and is decorated with stags and carnations. [29 words]\r\n\r\nFlorence\r\nHardwood, covered with gilded gesso decoration and partly painted in\r\nglaze, lined with silk\r\n\r\nV&A: 5757-1859\r\nAt Home in Renaissance Italy, eds.Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Flora Dennis (London, 2006), cat.119, pl.5.2","date":{"text":"5 Oct 2006 - 7 Jan 2007","earliest":"2006-10-05","latest":"2007-01-07"}},{"text":"BOX AND COVER\r\nGilt gesso on wood. Arms of families.\r\nITALIAN; 15th century\r\n5757-1859","date":{"text":"Pre-2006","earliest":"2006-01-01","latest":"2006-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["5757:2-1859","5757:1-1859"],"accessionNumberNum":"5757","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1859,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Lid","Box"],"assets":["2019LN3232","2019LN8287","2019LN8264","2019LU4473","2019LT8117","2019LV3729"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-04-03","availableToBook":false}}