Cassone (one of a pair)

Italian (Florentine?) Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The three scenes are identified by inscriptions in cartouches that read: How Acteon went hunting with his companions; How Diana changed Acteon into a stag (he had surprised the goddess bathing); How Acteon’s companions looked for him and could not find him. The story is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which enjoyed enormous popularity in the Middle Ages and beyond. This is one of a pair of marriage chests (cassoni) owned by the Museum.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art