The Cassone is a piece of furniture, perhaps it would be better to say THE Renaissance furniture.

Houses and palaces, depite the wealth of their inhabitants, were rather simple because they did not have many things to store and so furniture was very limited.

So, very often, the family's richness was measured with the cassone because oftentimes it was the most expensive thing in the house. The cassone entered a household with the marriage. It was indeed the bride that had to bring in the new family this chest filled with her dowry: money, household linens, cloth to be sewn into clothing and other objects considered necessary for the dowry: the richer the family, the bigger the dowry. The cassone had several functions. First of all it was a way of showing off. The cassone had to be very precious and in fact it was decorated, painted or inlaid because on the wedding day it processed from the bride's house to the groom’s in a sort of a train for everybody to look at. It showed the richeness of the two families that were about to be united.
Then, once at home, it was put in the bedroom and used as a closet. The closet that we use today, vertical armoirs, existed but were used to store weapons (arma – in latin) - and were usually in the dayly part of the house, such as the kitchen or dining room. Finally, the cassone had also to be a source of inspiration because often it was decorated with familiar scenes with mythological or sacred themes that emphasized the women or family virtues.

It is therefore a very interesting and artistically valuable furniture and therefore it is worth going to see the exhibition about it  (open until November 2nd) that takes place at the Galleria dell'Accademia. Hotel Kursaal & Ausonia is located about 5 minutes walk from the museum and we can book you the entrance ticket so you can enjoy a piece of domestic Renaissance life together with its symbol, Michelangelo's David