Triumph of Love (?)

This Triumph of Love from around 1460 draws on the Petrarchan tradition of triumphal processions that was popular in Italian Renaissance decorative art. Giovanni di Paolo's interpretation of this secular, literary theme for a cassone or other domestic furnishing demonstrates his versatility beyond purely religious subjects. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays brilliant, jewel-like color, gold grounds, lyrical figure types of Gothic grace, perspectival experiments that create strange compressed spaces, intense narrative invention.

The processional composition adapts Giovanni di Paolo's narrative skills to a secular subject, with the triumphal imagery rendered in his distinctive vivid palette and expressive figural style.