Boccaccian Themes in Italian Cassone Painting, 1400-1550, Part 1: Paintings by Unknown Masters

Each entry follows this form: location (city, collection); general artistic tradition (eg. Florentine); approximate date; subject with textual source; and format (i.e., cassone, spalliera, etc.). "SENZA CASA" shelters many pictures. They fall into two sub-groupings: (1) paintings cited in sales catalogues or listed in photographic archives without indication of location; (2) homeless pictures once in well-known collections, as in SENZA CASA (Formerly Firenze, Serristori Coll.) Griselda, etc.

Griselda

FIRENZE, Biblioteca Marucelliana, Vol. F. 67, Florentine, ca. 1470. Griselda (Decameron X.10). Drawing, project for a cassone. Cfr B. DEGENHARDT and A. SCHMITT, Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450, Berlin 1968, II, p. 566, Cat. 561.

LONDON, National Gallery. Umbrian, close to Signorelli, ca. 1500 (The Griselda Master). Griselda I [outgoing link, BBC] (Decameron X.10). Spalliera, companion to Griselda II and III. Cfr. M. DAVIES, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd ed., London 1961, pp. 365-367, No. 912.

————, National Gallery. Umbrian, close to Signorelli, ca. 1500 (The Griselda Master). Griselda II [outgoing link, BBC] (Decameron X.10). Spalliera, companion to Griselda I and III. Cfr. M. DAVIES, ibid., No. 913.; also Decameron, ed. Branca, I, pp. xii-xiii.

————, National Gallery. Umbrian, close to Signorelli, ca. 1500 (The Griselda Master). Griselda III [outgoing link, BBC] (Decameron X.10). Spalliera, companion to Griselda I and II. Cfr. M. DAVIES, ibid., No. 914.

LONGLEAT, Warminster, Great Britain, Coll. Marquess of Bath, Florentine, ca. 1465. Unidentified, but clearly Griselda (Decameron X.10). Cassone. Cfr. Photographic Archive, Courtauldt Institute, London B54/398-400.

PAVIA, Castello Visconteo, lost, Lombard, before 1430. Griselda (Decameron X.10). Fresco cycle. Cfr. V. Brance, Boccaccio medievale, 3rd ed., Florence 1970, p. 313.

Castello di Roccabianca

ROCCABIANCA, Parma, formerly (now MILANO, Castello Sforzesco), Milanese (possibly Niccolo da Varallo?), 1458-1464. Sala di Griselda, fresco cycle based on Decameron X.10; 24 episodes plus astrological cycle in ceiling. Cfr. M. ARESE SIMICK, Il ciclo profano degli affreschi di Roccabianca: ipotesi per un'interpretazione iconografica in "Arte lombarda", LXV 1983, pp. 5-26; A. LORENZI, Gli affreschi di Roccabianca, Milano 1967; Decameron, ed. Branca, II, p. 565 and III, p. 953, 955, 956, 957; Daniela Romagnoli, "La storia di Griselda nella camera picta di Roccabianca: un altro autunno del medioevo?" (download pdf). Cfr. also (in Italian) Maria Grazia Tolfo, Il cielo in una stanza a Roccabianca [outgoing link].

SENZA CASA, Florentine, ca. 1430. Subject not identified but possibly conclusion of Griselda (Decameron X.10). Cassone. Cfr. Fototeca, Villa I Tatti, Settignano, Firenze.

————, Florentine, ca. 1450, close to Pesselino. Subject unidentified but clearly Griselda (Decameron X.10). Cassone. Cfr. Fototeca, Villa I Tatti, Settignano, Firenze.

————, formerly FIRENZE, Coll. Serristori, Florentine, ca. 1450. Griselda (Decameron X.10). Cassone. Cfr. Decameron, ed. Branca, III, p. 946, 947; Sotheby Park Burnet Italia sale, Firenze, 9 May 1977. lot. 21.

————, formerly MILANO, Coll. Bagatti-Valsecchi, Florentine, ca. 1490. Griselda (Decameron X.10)?. Cassone. Cfr. SCHUBRING, Cassoni, I, p. 300, No. 347 and II, Taf. LXXXI; E. FAHY, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York 1976, pp. 181, 183.

Cimone

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania, USA, Allentown Art Museum, Florentine, ca. 1460. Story of Cimone (Decameron V.1). Cassone. Cfr. E. CALLMANN, Beyond Nobility: Art for the Private Citizen in the Early Renaissance, Allentown 1981, pp. 7-8.

FIRENZE, Collezione Marchese Ginori, Umbrian, ca. 1500, close to Giovanni Santi. Shepherd and Nymph but more likely Cimone and Efigenia (Decameron V.1). Spalliera (?), companion to Firenze, Ginori. Cfr. B. BERENSON, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London 1968, I, p. 383 and II, pl. 1018.

————, Collezione Marchese Ginori, Umbrian, Shepherd and Nymph, companion to Firenze, Ginori. Cfr. B. BERENSON, ibid., I, p. 383 and II, pl. 1020.

Nastagio

SAINT LOUIS, Missouri, USA, St.Louis Museum of Art, No. 152-1962, Possibly Modern copy of a lost Ferrarese original, late 15th c. Nastagio degli Onesti (Decameron V.8). Cassone. Cfr. SCHUBRING, Cassoni, I, p. 355, No. 537 and II, Taf. CXXVIII; B. B. FREDERICKSON and F. ZERI, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Mass. 1972, p. 630.

Part 2: Paintings by Known Artists

(S. A.; M.R.) Bibliography: Watson, Paul F. "A Preliminary List of Subjects from Bocaccio in Italian Painting, 1400-1550" Studi sul Boccaccio, Firenze: Sansoni Editore, 1985-6, 15, p. 149-166.