Battle between the Athenians and the Persians

This painting-a representation of Xerxes' invasion of Greece in the early fifth century BC-was made as the front panel of a cassone, or low chest. It is the first such cassone panel to be firmly connected to the workshop of the artist Apollonio di Giovanni, who had the most successful shop for such works in fifteenth-century Florence. The coats-of-arms depicted on the painting are those of the wealthy and important Vettori and Rucellai families, and, as a marriage between those families occurred in 1463, the work can be securely dated to that time. Additionally, the account books for the shop confirm that the cassone was made for that marriage, and give the price as fifty florins, making this panel an exceptionally well-documented piece.

Here, Xerxes and his Persian army are shown in combat with the Athenians Pericles, Cimon, and Themistocles, whose names, along with that of Xerxes, have been written on it. (Historical license has been taken, however, as Pericles did not take part in this battle.) Earlier in its history, the panel was paired with another from a second chest, showing The Triumph of Themistocles and Cimon; this panel was destroyed in the Second World War. The end panels that accompanied the Oberlin painting showed knights in combat watched by a young couple, and horsemen fighting before a royal castle, while those of the paired chest showed a young couple in a chariot with Moors, and women collecting fruit and flowers. Images of historical and courtly scenes, depicting love, chivalry, and valor, were typical themes for Renaissance marriage chests. The art historian Paul Watson has determined that Apollonio di Giovanni drew not only on ancient historical sources, but also on the work of Italian humanist writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio for the images on the two cassoni; the end panels connected with Oberlin's work depicted scenes from the latter's poem, "The Thesiad of the Marriage of Emilia," appropriate for such a nuptial chest.

The narrative, action, and profusion of detail in this work-of costumes, banners, armor, ships, tents, and animals, as well as of textures incised into the areas of gilding- make it a visual delight, as well as an extremely important piece of evidence for fifteenth-century Florentine panel decoration and cassone construction.