The Triumphs of Love and Chastity

Apollonio di Giovanni painted this Triumphs of Love and Chastity around 1500 as a cassone or spalliera panel. Apollonio was the leading painter of marriage chests in 15th-century Florence, and his workshop produced hundreds of narrative panels illustrating Petrarch's Trionfi, classical mythology, and romance subjects. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

Tempera on panel with the miniaturist detail and bright coloring characteristic of Florentine cassone painting. The processional format follows Petrarch's allegorical triumphs with lively figural narrative.