Marriage chest (Cassone)

1480-01-01T00:00:00Z

The gesso relief shows a mythological landscape inhabited by satyrs. Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture, accompanied by the underworld goddess Hecate, enters in a chariot drawn by dragons, searching for Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres. In the early Renaissance, cassoni, or marriage chests, were usually made in pairs and sent by the groom's family to the bride to hold her dowry during the bridal procession. The pendant cassone, formerly in the Palazzo Guinigi in Lucca, illustrated the preceding part of the story, the abduction of Proserpina by Pluto, god of the underworld.