These works were painted by an anonymous artist known to art historians as the Master of Charles of Durazzo. The panels come from the front of a wedding chest, known in Italian as a cassone. They are painted in tempera on a horizontal rectangular board measuring 45 cm in width and 35 cm in height.

A cassone is a decorative low rectangular chest characteristic of the Italian Renaissance. Made of wood, often carved, painted, gilded, or inlaid, cassoni were used to hold a bride’s dowry and later served for storing clothing and jewellery. They could also function as seating. Museums today preserve both entire chests and their dispersed fragments—most often painted fronts depicting mythological, historical, or allegorical scenes.

The medieval paintings from this cassone front show figures with almost no individual features. The scenes take place outdoors. The landscape elements are flat; there is neither perspective nor chiaroscuro. The upper border of the panels is decorated with pastigliaggio—a gilded, raised, gypsum relief ornament with plant motifs, resembling golden clouds floating above the scenes below.

The Abduction of Europa

The scene depicts a group of women and three bulls. On the left, in an open doorway, stands a woman turned to the viewer with her right side. She wears a simple golden gown and a garland in her loose blond hair. She looks toward the group of women to her right. All of these women have light hair adorned with wreaths. The women in front wear dresses in red, navy blue, pink, and brown.

The first woman from the right, shown in right profile, wears a golden gown dotted with brown. She is Europa, the Phoenician princess. According to Greek mythology, Zeus abducted her in the form of a bull.

Europa stands to the left of a bull positioned on the right side of the composition. She bends slightly forward and places a wreath on the animal’s head. The bull is shown in left profile. Behind it stands a second bull turning its head in the opposite direction, toward the right.

Above them stretches a rocky grey hillside, dotted with small trees with thin trunks and round dark green crowns. In the upper right corner is a fragment of a deep-blue cloud. From it emerges—seen in left profile—the head of a bull crowned with a garland. Beneath this cloud is a section of the façade of a house with two windows.

Mythological Scene with Hermes

This scene includes a woman, four youths, and three cows. At the centre stands a young man facing forward. He is the largest figure. A garland rests on his blond hair, and golden wings sprout from his shoulders. He wears a golden knee-length garment, with grey hose covering his legs. In his lowered left hand he holds a staff.

To his right walk three cows. The one in the foreground turns its head toward his wing. The second faces right; the third is shown only partially—its hindquarters and back legs are visible.

On the left side is a section of a house wall. To its right, emerging from a grey cloud against a red patch, appears a woman shown from the waist up. She wears a wreath and a navy-blue gown. She points forward with her left hand. Below her the winged youth in the golden garment swings a long staff. To his right, from the lower edge of the painting, emerges another youth in a red garment, also holding a staff raised in his hand. In the upper right corner appears the head and shoulders of a fourth youth, dressed in red and likewise holding up a staff.

The background consists of grey rocks and trees. This scene illustrates the myth in which Hermes steals the heifer guarded by the hundred-eyed Argus—formerly the nymph Io, transformed by Hera out of jealousy because Zeus had fallen in love with her.

Audio description consultation: Adrian Wyka
Content consultation: Miłosz Kargol