{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O58630"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58630/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE6130/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AE6130/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AE6130","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE6140","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AE5987","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LD0339","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LD0345","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LD0346","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018LD0347","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O58630/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O58630","accessionNumber":"5625-1859","objectType":"Box","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Gilt-boxes, decorated with scented lead-based paste (<i>pasta di muschio</i>) and illustrated with biblical or classical legends, were popular throughout Italy between about 1470 and 1570. This example includes the stories of David and Goliath and Marcus Curtius, who sacrificed his own life in order to stop an earthquake in Rome, by plunging with his horse into a chasm, which promptly closed up over him and ceased the quake. Jules Soulages (1803–1856), a lawyer from Toulouse and the leading collector of Italian Renaissance items in his day, once owned this box, which was bought by the Museum in 1859, some two years after being exhibited with other items if his at Marlborough House, between December 1856 and January 1857.","physicalDescription":"Pastiglia box or casket with scenes from Roman History: (1, front) Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf; (II, right side) the musician Arion jumping overboard (?); (III, back) the young David holding the severed head of Goliath before a crowd rejoicing and music-making; (IV, left side) two soldiers, each mounted on an elephant, fighting, while a third, with a large branch in hand seems to spur on the beasts. \nThe lid with a  central boss handle. The design depiects a garland; at centre two masks stflanked by harpies. Four flat, round feet. Fitted with a sprung brass catch (later addition).\n\nGilded fields with stippled punchmarks. The inside is fully lined with printed decorative paper (with green colouring) which is probably continental (possibly German) c1700-50.\r\n\r\n\n\nConstruction\nNailed, butted boards, the bottom board nailed up. The lid attached with two wire ring hinges. With moulded, applied white paste ornament on a textured, gilded background. Water gilded on a reddish bole.\n\nCondition\nVarious small losses of paste ornament","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gold leaf","id":"x33207"},{"text":"gesso","id":"AAT14952"},{"text":"white lead","id":"AAT13754"}],"techniques":[{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"gilded","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"carved","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"moulding","id":"AAT53134"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wood (possibly alder or poplar) with moulded white lead <i>pasta di muschio</i> decoration, gilded","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":["2006AE6130","2006AE6140","2006AE5987","2018LD0339","2018LD0345","2018LD0346","2018LD0347"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES301916"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Box","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1510","earliest":"1505-01-01","latest":"1514-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"10.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"16","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"10.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from departmental catalogue.  Not checked on object","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Part of the Soulages Collection, purchased for 3<i>l</i>.","historicalContext":"Comparable objects\r\n\r\nSee Pastiglia Boxes, hidden treasures of the Italian Renaissance (Cofanetti in Pastiglia), catalogue from the exhibition Pastiglia Boxes: hidden treasures of the Italian Renaissance from the collection of Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome: Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Feb. 13 - April 28, 2002, eg cat. VI, VIII, IX, X, XI","briefDescription":"Gilt box with moulded white lead <i>pasta di muschio</i> decoration, Italy, ca. 1510","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Patrick de Winter: \"A little-known creation of Renaissance decorative arts: the white lead pastigilia box\", <i>Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell' Arte</i>, 14 (1984), pp. 9 - 131. Cat. no. 59, pl. 22"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Maya Corry; Deborah Howard; Mary Laven, <i>Madonnas and Miracles: The Holy Home in Renaissance Italy</i> (Philip Wilson Publishers and the Fitzwilliam Museum 2017), plate 21, p.17-18, p. 176\n\n'Small boxes were also common courtship and marriage gifts. Depicting a variety of mythological, classical and religious designs, the imagery on caskets was meant both to offer entertainment and to serve as moral reminders to the box's owner. The sicles of a pavilion-topped yellow <i>cofanetto</i> (little box) (plate 21) are embellished with raised white <i>pastiglia</i> (paste) decoration, also named <i>pasta di muschio</i> (musk paste) after the scent added to the substance, which may have emitted a pleasant aroma when touched, adding a sensory experience when handling it. [note 6] The various sides of the box depict a legend from ancient Roman history, a chivalric scene of knights in battle, and the Old Testament story of the legendary fight between David and Goliath. lt shows the moment when the underdog, the young David, triumphantly lifts the severed head of the gigantic Philistine warrior. Images from the Old Testament like the scene of David and Goliath on the <i>cofanetto</i>provided families with aesthetically pleasing, entertaining images and examples of virtue. [note 7]\n\nBoxes decorated with religious imagery often held jewellery with spiritual significance. The fifteenth-century preacher Bernardino of Siena suggested that a woman should remember that her 'beauty and fine grace are given to her by God, if only she uses them well ... [she should] be adorned and delicate, but with discretion in all things, and modestly'. [note 8] Bernardino also encouraged women to lessen the time they spent at their toilette saying 'if they spent as much of it on their soul as they do on beautifying their bodies, they would turn into Saint Catharine'. [note 9] "}],"production":"This item is attributed by Patrick de Winter (see references) to the Workshop of Moral and Love themes.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Marcus Curtius","id":"N4631"},{"text":"David and Goliath","id":"N4528"},{"text":"Arion and the Dolphin","id":"N3429"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Small display curated by James Yorke, gallery 126, 1984-1985\n\nThe lid has a decoration, characteristic of the Moral and Love Themes workshop; the pinnacle, with tear-drop motifs, bearded masks and harpies framed in a rectangular laurel wreath and an outer border with an interlacing pattern somewhat worn. Seraphim are placed at the four corners, something which occurs on box no. 82-1890. On the front is the sacrifice of the Manlius Curtius, on the back David with the head of Goliath, on the left side Roman soldiers battling with elephants, recalling the stories of Pyrrhus or Hannibal, and on the right a figure in the sea between two ships, possibly Palinarus, Aeneas’ helmsman, who drowned. The composition is similar to the one on box no. 1566-1855. Gesticulating elders and standard bearing soldiers, although there are fewer of them, are very much in evidence, and the same treatment of the crowd scene is to be found on the “David” on the back. The equestrian Manlus Porquatus, deriving from a Briosco plaquette, is repeated on other boxes, The viola da mano playing women, celebrating David’s triumph, are an adaptation of Europa’s sisters or the lamenting Thisbe. The left hand scene depicts stylized elephants, knights (or in this case, mahuts) deriving from equestrian battle scenes and the frequently represented youthful soldier, waving a branch. The box is supported by flattened ball feet, with floral decoration and four nails on the bottom help hold the box together. The box is lined with eighteenth century printed paper. ","date":{"text":"1984-1985","earliest":"1984-01-01","latest":"1985-12-31"}},{"text":"CASKET\r\nITALIAN; about 1490\r\nStucco work on a gilt ground.","date":{"text":"pre October 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-09-30"}}],"partNumbers":["5625-1859"],"accessionNumberNum":"5625","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1859,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-01","availableToBook":true}}