Marriage Casket
Artist
Workshop of Embriachi
(Italian, active late 14th century - early 15th century)
Dateearly 15th century
MediumBone and wood
DimensionsOverall: 10 3/4 × 18 × 13 13/16 inches (27.31 × 45.72 × 35.08 cm)
Credit LineAnonymous gift
Object number65-40
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 106
Collections
DescriptionRectangular container covered with bone plaques and ornamented with intarsia in green, brown, black and white; round the upper part of the hinged cover a bone panels carved with winged putti amidst foliage. Round the body are plaques -- 7 front and back, 5 left and right separated by fluted corner columns -- carved with the story of Susanna and the Elders in altered sequence. Several plaques have the usual background of the umbrella-topped pines on rolling hills. Inside lined with faded red material.Gallery LabelFounded in Venice by Baldassare degli Embriachi, the Embriachi workshop produced both religious and secular objects. The latter category includes marriage caskets for personal objects, which were fashionably decorated with narrative panels illustrating classical myths, romantic tales, or biblical episodes. This casket illustrates the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders in which Susanna resisted two lechers, was wrongfully accused of adultery, and then proven innocent by the prophet Daniel. Although the Embriachi worked primarily in ivory, when it became too costly, materials such as bone were substituted.
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