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Scene in a Court of Love: Filocolo's Parable

Scene in a Court of Love: Filocolo's Parable

Giovanni di Francesco Toscani

Giovanni Toscani refers to himself as a painter of wedding chests (cassoni) in his tax declaration of 1427. He had received major commissions in Florence beginning in 1420, such as the frescoes in one of the patrician family chapels in the church of Santa Trinita. Elongated swaying figures with cinched waists and cascading draperies decorated with elaborate patterns are characteristic of the International Gothic style, which linked the visual cultures of artistic centers from north of the Alps to the southern tip of the Italian peninsula. This painting originated as the front panel of a marriage chest (cassone). This scene derives from a courtly romance, the Filocolo, written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the 1330s. This medieval literary form remained popular throughout the Renaissance and provided many subjects for the decoration of household objects. Shown here is a gathering of courtly men and women in a garden. At the center, a crowned lady elegantly dressed in blue brocaded gown stands between two kneeling youths, the one to her right crowned with a floral wreath. The lady is shown removing her own chaplet, a symbol of love in the Middle Ages, and is about place it on the head of the bare-headed man at right. Meanwhile, she places her right hand on his rival’s head from which she will remove his chaplet and place it on her own head. The outcome of this story is intentionally ambiguous, as the lady has left both men, and the viewer of this picture, wondering which one is the object of her love.
Artist
Giovanni di Francesco Toscani
(Italian, 1370/1380 - 1430)
Title
Scene in a Court of Love: Filocolo's Parable
Date
ca. 1425
Medium
Tempera and gold on wood panel
Dimensions
15 3/8 x 48 3/16 in. Overall
Credit
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession No.
61.4.3
Classification
Paintings
Geography
Italy

Related

Visconti (Milan, Italy); Alexis-Francois Artaud de Montor (Paris, France)[1]; 1925, Paris Art Market; 13 September 1931, sold [then attributed to Rossello di Jacopo Franchi] by Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi (Florence, Italy) to Samuel H. Kress (New York, NY); 1939, gifted to the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); 1952, deaccessioned and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation (New York, NY); September 1961, gifted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1967, transferred to the Elvehjem Art Center [now called Chazen Museum of Art]. [1] According to the Chazen Museum of Art, the painting was not identified by artist in the Artaud de Montor Sale in Paris on 16-17 January 1851. After a stay in Rome, where he worked at the French embassy, Artaud de Montor served as a secretary in the French embassy in Florence between 1805 and 1808. His collection was probably formed largely during that time; in 1808 it already numbered 110 pieces and two years later 150 works. See J. Perot, "Canova et les diplomates français à Rome: François Cacault et Alexis Artaud de Montor," Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art français [1980]: 221-222.

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  • Bowdoin College Museum of Art. "Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage." Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 2008.
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  • National Gallery of Art Library. “Image Collections.” NGA Library - Image Collections. National Gallery of Art Library. Accessed September 24, 2020. https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma991093213804896

  • Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe: Smart Museum of Art, 4/8/2021–6/13/2021
  • Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 3/24/2008–7/22/2008
  • Images of Love and Death in Renaissance and Late Medieval Art: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 11/1/1975–1/31/1976
  • Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance Art: Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 11/23/1959–11/30/1961
  • Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress: Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 2/1/1932–6/30/1935

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