Florentine School, 15th Century

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

a desco da parto decorated with a scene in a courtly garden (recto) and a young boy with a goose (verso)
tempera on panel

Provenance

Private collects ion, Switzerland.

Literature

C. de Carli, I deschi da parto e la pittura del primo Rinascimento toscano, Turin 1997, cat. no. 8;
C. Däubler-Hauschke, Geburt und memoria. Zum italiensichen Bildtypus der deschi da parto, Berlin and Munich 2003, p. 210, no. 13, reproduced.

Catalogue Note

The depiction of a giardino d'amore or courtly pleasure garden, was a common feature of deschi da parto or birth salvers in the early Renaissance, and the fountain also recurs in several examples. The figures depict the traditional delights of music, dance and courtly love beneath an orange tree and a pine tree. On the reverse, the coats-of-arms of the two families are now lost; the young boy carries a toy called a volano but the significance of the goose remains unexplained. Only about seventy such salvers survive today, chiefly from Florence and Siena. Häubler-Hauschke and de Carli (see Literature) date this early example to around 1400-1430.