Casket from Ferrara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 2010

Casket (cassetta)


Date: late 15th century

Culture: Italian, Ferrara

Medium: Molded gesso on partly gilt wood (pastiglia)

Dimensions: 3 1/8 × 4 1/8 × 6 3/8 in. (7.9 × 10.5 × 16.2 cm)

Classification: Woodwork-Furniture

Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Accession Number: 17.190.589

Description:

Molded pastiglia, a composition consisting of either gesso or pulverized white lead with an egg binder to which musk was added, was applied to the surface of small caskets and deliberately left ungilt and unpainted, so that the relief exuded a musky scent. The technique was introduced to Ferrarese craftsmen at the end of the 1440s by a French immigrant, Carlo di Monlione.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/193569