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CASSONE

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 463 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CASSONE , in See also:

furniture, the See also:Italian name for a See also:marriage See also:coffer. The See also:ancient and once almost universal See also:European See also:custom of providing a See also:bride with a See also:chest or coffer to contain the See also:household See also:linen, which often formed the See also:major See also:part of her See also:dowry, produced in See also:Italy a See also:special type of chest of monumental See also:size and See also:artistic magnificence. The cassoni of the See also:people, although always large in size, were See also:simple as regards See also:ornament; but those of the nobles and the well-to-do See also:mercantile classes were usually imposing as regards size, and adorned with extreme richness. The cassone was almost invariably much longer than the See also:English chest, and even at a relatively See also:early See also:period it assumed an artistic finish such as was never reached by the chests of See also:northern See also:Europe, except in the See also:case of a few of the royal corbeilles de mariage made by such artists as See also:Boulle for members of the See also:house of See also:France. Many of the earlier examples were carved in panels of geometrical See also:tracery, but their characteristic ornament was either intarsia or See also:gesso, or a mixture of the two. Bold and massive feet, usually shaped as claws, lioncels, or other animals are also exceedingly characteristic of cassoni, most of which are of massive and See also:sarcophagus-like proportions with moulded lids, while many of them are adorned at their corners with figures sculptured in high See also:relief. The See also:scroll-See also:work inlay is commonly simple and graceful, consisting of floral or geometrical motives, or arabesques. The examples coated with gilded gesso or blazoned with paintings are, however, the most magnificent. They were often made of See also:chestnut, and decorated with See also:flowers and foliage in a relief which, See also:low at first, became after the See also:Renaissance very high and See also:sharp. The panels of the painted cassoni frequently See also:bore representations of scriptural and mythological subjects, or incidents derived from the legends of See also:chivalry. Nor was See also:heraldry forgotten, the arms of the See also:family for which the chest was made being perhaps emblazoned upon the front. These chests rarely See also:bear See also:dates or See also:initials, but it is often possible to determine their See also:history from their armorial See also:bearings.

End of Article: CASSONE

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CASSOWARY (Casuarius)

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