Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (cassone, front panel)

Francesco di Giorgio's Solomon and the Queen of Sheba cassone front panel presents the most diplomatically complex encounter in the Old Testament, where two great rulers meet to test wisdom and establish alliance. As a cassone panel, the subject connected the marriage celebration for which the chest was made with the themes of royal wisdom and the diplomatic negotiation that marriage itself represented in aristocratic culture. The Solomon and Sheba meeting — frequently interpreted as an Old Testament prefiguration of the Magi's homage to Christ — gave the cassone additional spiritual resonance appropriate to a Christian marriage celebration.

The portrait is rendered with skilled technique characteristic of Francesco di Giorgio's best work. The tempera medium, applied in thin layers of egg-bound pigment over a prepared gesso ground, the subtle gradations of flesh tone and the textural contrasts between skin, fabric, and background that give the image its convincing presence.