I rarely see my dad these days, so it was good to meet up with him again after such a while - if not just to see what he was up to. We initially aimed to visit the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery but after finding out that there was a 2 hour wait until the next entry, we gave it a miss. My dad suggested visiting one of the churches in a book he had recently acquired - the 1000 best churches in England - of which he is trying to visit all. We ended up at St.Mary-Le-Strand just opposite the Courtauld where I noticed an exhibition concerning Florentine Renaissance painting, of which I have recently spent a week engulfing myself on my visit to Florence.
Walking into the single room of the exhibition was exciting, the last time I had been there the walls were adorned with a very blue-dominated collection of Cezanne works. Instead my eyes were met with the warm glimmer of gold; the room was filled with huge, courtly chests (or cassioni as they call them in Florence). Masterpieces in their own right, these mighty wooden pieces are often neglected and classed under 'decorative art.'
The chests often depict stories of a non-religious nature, making them a little more accessible for the wider audience. One of my favourite stories depicted was about a girl named Ginerva of Genoa. Story has it that her husband at the time, Bernabo made a bet with a sly young man named Ambrogiuolo of 5000 gold florins, concerning the chastity of his wife. Being the sneaky and possibly sexually frustrated man that he is, sneaked into Ginerva's room while she was sleeping, and took a quick peek at her naked body:
He then proceeded to relieve her of some of her finest jewellery in order to prove to her husband,Bernabo, what an unfaithful little minx she really was. Bernabo considers this ample proof to have her killed, and so sent one of his servants out to do the dirty work for him. Of course he was a useless plank of wood when it came to fighting and so got beaten by Ginerva who proceeded to dress herself in his clothing. After revealing herself to what seems to be a group of authoritative figures, Bernabo is was tied to a stake, slathered with honey and stung to death by insects as a punishment. Poor Bernabo. He got a really raw deal.
The great thing about these chests is that their humor is intended. In the cases where they seem amusing, they were probably meant to be. The exhibition was fairly limited in quantity of works, however as a student I didn't pay a penny for entry and it turned out to be quite an interesting and intimate experience with a collection of items that would otherwise rarely be exhibited.
Good stuff.
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