Coffer of the Giusti Family with Stories of Virginia

The wedding chest, built in fir wood with the dovetail joint technique, is embellished with a precious denticulated frame and decorated with an abundant gilded tablet decoration, which divides the central panel with the arms of the Giusti family from the two painted side panels by means of candelabra. Four pairs of leaves knotted at the corners give the three isolated fields on the forehead an almost circular shape, which we also find on both sides. Lid and handles are still exceptionally original, as is the case inside, only altered by thick reinforcement. The painted compartments illustrate two moments in the story of Virgil, Virginia and Claudio Appio, narrated by Livio (III, 44-58), Diodoro Siculo (XII, 24,2), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (XI, 28, 2 ff.), Cicero (De finibus bonorum et malorum) and Valerio Massimo (VI, I, 2): Virgina led before Appio Claudio and Virginia killed in the forum by her father Virginio. This second episode is represented in an extremely realistic and literal way as it shows Virginio who, brandishing a knife stolen from a butcher's shop, is slaughtering his daughter.