Side view of chest with draped figures decorating the angles

Front view of wooden chest with high relief carving and coat of arms in the center

Pair of Chests (cassoni)

Italian, Milan (?)

Datethird quarter of the 16th century with nineteenth-century alterations, additions and restorations

MediumWalnut

Dimensions27 3/4 × 70 7/8 × 21 1/2 in. (70.5 × 180 × 54.6 cm)

Credit LineHenry Clay Frick Bequest

Accession number1918.5.78

Commentary

This chest, and its pair, (1916.5.79) exemplify the art of wooden sculpture in late sixteenth-century Italy. The complex friezes depict scenes from the life of Julius Caesar, as described by Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer. On this chest, the scene at right represents Caesar returning victorious to Rome after a long war. Three captives march behind the horses drawing his chariot. The scene at left shows a similar chariot, filled with booty and drawn by four horses. On the other chest, the scene at left depicts Caesar in armor at the center facing right, directing the opening of the treasury. In the scene to the right of the coats of arms of the Crivelli of Milan, eight figures gather before a statue of a warrior.

Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.

Collection History

Crivelli (?). Otto H. Kahn, New York. Duveen. Frick, 1918.

Source: Furniture in The Frick Collection: Italian and French Renaissance, French 18th and 19th Centuries (Pt. I). Volume V. New York: The Frick Collection, 1992.

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