Cassone of the Seven Virtues

Family legend recounts that the Fausto and Giuseppe Bagatti Valsecchi discovered this piece being used as a manger by a farmer who was only to happy to have a new one in exchange for the old. Except for the skirt, which appears to be a 19th century reconstruction perhaps following the lines and decoration of the original, the cassone discovered in the area around Como in Northern Italy dates to the end of the 15th century. The three theological and the four cardinal virtues are personified by isocephalic female figures with attributes standing as if against a single long wall panelled below and, above, dark blue where their names appear. Thanks to the large confraternity fresco of the Madonna of Mercy that is over it, the cassone also occasionally served as an altarpiece, as the room was sometimes used also as a family chapel. Probably purchased by the brothers Fausto and Giuseppe at the end of the 19th century, the cassone is still displayed--as are all other objects in the museum--in its original place, thus contributing to the authentic "time capsule" ambiance.