Renaissance Marriage

Art history can leave us with more and greater impressions of past culture than we consciously have of our own. With the single parent family as a typical 21st century phenomenon, many who endured the heart-ache of a broken home syndrome may reject committement or marriage and family never realize how cherished this institution was in history.

In the history of marriage there was no such exertion of free will until Pius IV's 1563 bull at the Council of Trent, prompted by the Protestant Reformation, relaxed rules. More often than not, Renaissance marriage arrangements remained pretty much the way they had been set up in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. As this is a sensitive topic, it is not suitable for all ages, but the true beauty of its art can be appreciated by all.

In other words, matrimony was nothing short of a political
The most ideal Renaissance marriage, for example, was that between Isabella I of Castille and Ferdinand II of Aragon, sealed by a double portrait. In addition, Isabelle's bridal trosseau would have been stored in a spalliere or cassone, a painted ornamental piece in which a bride stowed gifts. These wedding chests were as popular as double wedding portraits and painters were commissioned to depict scenery from well-loved tales such as Boccaccio's Day IV of Decameron. From as early as the Late Middle Ages, these wooden chests featured inlaid or carved work and were decorated with whitechalk, gesso, paint, and gilding, and pastiglia, low relief decor. It was given to a bride and placed in the bridal suite. The cassone was a typical furnishing of wealthy merchants and aristocrats in Italian culture and a central piece of furniture of that