cassone

American  

[kuh-soh-nee, kahs-saw-ne] / kəˈsoʊ ni, kɑsˈsɔ nɛ /

noun

• cassoni
  plural

1. a large Italian chest of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, usually highly ornamented.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cassoni
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cassone

1880–85; < Italian, equivalent to cass ( a ) box ( see case ²) + -one augmentative suffix

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cassone cassoni

The second piece is a panoramic picture of a procession in Ancient Rome that once was a panel of a cassone, an expensive chest for clothes and domestic items.

From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2015

A faded Flemish tapestry, a curtained picture, an old Italian cassone, and an almost empty bookcase—that was all that it seemed to contain, besides a chair and a table.

From The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Religious paintings, whether altar-pieces or easel pictures of a devotional character, are interspersed with mediaeval allegories, genre subjects, decorative cassone panels, portraiture, and purely lyrical "Fantasiestücke," corresponding somewhat with the modern "Landscape with Figures."

From Giorgione by Herbert Cook

It is possible he was alluding to these very cassone panels.

From Giorgione by Herbert Cook

The beautifully carved walnut cassone was made in 1514 for a marriage which united two Sienese families, the Piccolomini and the del Golia.

From Handbook of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts by Joseph Breck

Miriam Schapiro, Brach's wife, shows a series of panels, similar in motif to Renaissance cassoni, or hope chests, in which she paints the fertility symbol of an egg.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is probable the furniture matched the style of the rooms, and that much money was spent on carved chairs and cassoni.

From Fra Bartolommeo by Flora Kendrick

Painted chests and cassoni were already in demand, dishes and plates for the table and the surface of the table itself were treated in a similar way.

From The Venetian School of Painting by Evelyn March Phillipps

Here the spirit of luxury was satisfied by beautiful designs for ornaments, dress stuffs, tapestries, vases and "cassoni," &c., which brought beauty into every life, and made each house a poem.

From Fra Bartolommeo by Flora Kendrick

With the fourth addition on Morelli's list we pass into a totally different sphere of art—the decoration of cassoni, and other pieces of furniture.

From Giorgione by Herbert Cook