Scène de l'Histoire de Céphale et Procris

Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli's Scène de l'Histoire de Céphale et Procris (Scene from the Story of Cephalus and Procris), painted around 1455 and now in the Campana collection in the Louvre, depicts a tragic myth from Ovid's Metamorphoses — the story of the hunter Cephalus who accidentally killed his faithful wife Procris with his enchanted spear when she was hiding in the bushes spying on him out of jealousy. The myth of Cephalus and Procris carried complex moral resonances about jealousy, marital trust, and the tragic consequences of misunderstanding, making it a suitable subject for cassone panels painted for newlywed Florentine couples.

Tempera on panel with the panoramic horizontal format typical of cassone painting. The narrative unfolds across a landscape setting with Cephalus the hunter, the forest setting where the fatal misunderstanding occurs, and the tragic conclusion all potentially compressed into a single reading.