THE MASTER OF THE ARMA CHRISTI OF SAN LORENZO | HORATIUS COCLES DEFENDING THE BRIDGE TO ROME FROM THE ETRUSCANS; GAIUS MUCIUS SCAEVOLA IN THE ETRUSCAN CAMP, THRUSTING HIS HAND INTO A FIRE (A PAIR)

Verona, until 19th century (when attributed to Girolamo dai Libri, according to old seals and labels on the verso);

Trotti collection, Paris, before 1920 (according to records from 1932 in the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence);

Dame Nellie Melba, GBE (1861- 1931), Australia, by the mid-1920s;

Thence by inheritance to her granddaughter, Miss Armstrong;

Thence by descent to The Earl of Westmorland;

By whom anonymously sold, ("The Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 10 July 2014, lot 191;

There acquired.

M. Vinco, Cassoni: Pittura profana del Rinascimiento a Verona, Milan 2018, pp. 161-64, cats. 39.3 and 39.4, reproduced in color p. 163 and color detail of the second panel p. 164.

Unknown to the general public until they were sold at Sotheby’s London in 2014, these two tondi form a set of four with two other tondi now in the Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig that depict The priests begging with Coriolanus not to attack Rome and Veturia and Volumnia and their two sons convince Coriolanus not to attack Rome. The anonymous artist known as the Master of the Arma Christi of San Lorenzo was a collaborator of Domenico Morone, and the present panels can be attributed to his mature period. While the two Leipzig panels recount the story of Roman nobleman and general Coriolanus, the present two panels instead recount episodes of great civic virtue relating to the struggles between the Romans and Etruscans.

The first scene shows Horatius Cocles as he defended Rome against the advancing Etruscan troops, led by Porsenna and two companions, despite the crumbling bridge behind him. Bravely, Horatius dismissed his companions, and resisted the Etruscans until he finally jumped into the Tiber and saved himself by swimming away. The second scene shows the dramatic moment when Gaius Mucius Scaevola holds his own hand in the fire as punishment for not succeeding at killing Porsenna. The four panels once decorated wooden chests bearing the family's coat of arms and were likely commissioned for a newly married couple, as was common practice in fifteenth-century Verona.

A note on provenance: Dame Nellie Melba, GBE (1861 – 1931) was an Australian operatic soprano who became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early twentieth century, and the first person from her country to receive international recognition as a classical musician.