Renaissance paintings celebrate married love
Florence show features more than 40 works
10 September, 14:53
(ANSA) - Florence - A selection of exquisite Renaissance paintings celebrating the virtues of married life is drawing crowds in Florence.
The unusual exhibition, divided between the Horne Museum and the Galleria dell'Accademia, features over 40 artworks created in the 14th century.
The paintings were all commissioned for weddings and designed as ornamentation for lavish furniture, such as chests and bedsteads, destined for the couple's new bedroom.
As well as decoration, the paintings' chief purpose was to educate newly-weds on the duties of married couples, particularly the role of women within the home.
Rather than the romantic ideal of marriage celebrated by modern Italian society, a sense of duty and obligation is often core to these paintings. The stories depict wedding ceremonies, sumptuous banquets and the exchange of rings between bride and groom, all part of the long journey towards marriage that involved an elaborate series of contacts and contracts driven by wealth and politics rather than love. The artworks feature tales inspired by biblical stories, classical myths and "modern" authors such as Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. A painting by Francesco Pesellino, for example, illustrates the famous Decameron tale of Griselda, whose patience and obedience to her husband's whims and tests were eventually rewarded. Central place in the exhibition goes to a painting by Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi, also known as Lo Scheggia. The artwork, which goes by the name of the Adimari Chest (Cassone Adimari), was designed as decoration for a bedstead and depicts an elaborate nuptial procession believed to be that of Boccaccio Adimari and Lisa Ricasoli in 1420.
The Cassone Adimari is considered particularly unique for its meticulously elaborate costumes and the detailed panorama it offers of Florence's medieval streets.
Among the other artworks are two panels by Bartolomeo di Giovanni, illustrating colourful festivities at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, a popular mythological subject of love triumphing in the face of difficult circumstances.
The exhibition also gives visitors a unique opportunity to admire side-by-side four panels designed by Sandro Botticelli in 1475 to decorate two matching chests.
The paintings, which depict episodes from the biblical Book of Esther, have been separated for centuries and are normally housed in separate collections in Ottawa, Rome and Florence.
Although many of these wedding artworks can still be enjoyed today, almost none of the furniture they were intended to decorate has survived. The original chest painted by Giovanni Toscani and depicting the Palio of San Giovanni celebration is therefore particularly rare.
'Virtu' d'Amore' (Virtues of Love) is on show at the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Horne Museum until November 1.
photo: Titian's Sacred and Profane Love
