Gesso Boxes

A wooden box with polychrome and gilded "pastiglia" relief decor. Italy, XV century, decorated with scenes from the life of a martyr. Length: 15.5 x 10.4 x 9 cm. Provenance: Dutch private collection Overall in good condition for its age, some small defects to the decor and possibly some retouching to the polychromy, ball feet presumably of later date. Pastiglia [paˈstiʎʎa], an Italian term meaning "pastework", is low relief decoration, normally modelled in gesso or white lead, applied to build up a surface that may then be gilded or painted, or left plain. The technique was used in a variety of ways in Italy during the Renaissance. White lead pastiglia was a north Italian speciality, produced between about 1450 and 1550. Six workshops were identified by Patrick M. De Winter, although their location remains uncertain; the Workshop of the Love and Moral Themes, whose products seem the most numerous, was possibly at Ferrara, where the painter Cosimo Tura began his career gilding caskets. Venice is also thought to have produced them. Other workshops identified by De Winter include the "Workshop of the main Berlin casket" and "Workshop of the Cleveland Casket". The subjects were typically classical, drawn from both mythology and Ancient Roman history (especially the early period covered by Livy), but biblical ones are also found. Compositions can often be shown to be borrowed from another medium, such as prints or bronze plaquettes...

A Rare and Important Large Regency Period Country House Gesso Decorated Casket This most interesting large scale casket is highly decorative. It stands on four raised cast bronze an...

This beautiful 19th century Florentine rectangular lidded box is entirely decorated in the round with all typical Renaissance Italian patterns. The whi...