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Childbirth tray (desco da parto); obverse: Diana and Actaeon, reverse: Justice
ca. 1380-1400
Artwork Viewer
The Tuscan tradition of celebrating a newborn by commissioning a desco da parto, or birth tray, used to present gifts to the new mother, began around 1370. The front of this tray illustrates stories about Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt. In the upper scene, from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Diana transforms the hunter Actaeon into a stag. The lower scene recalls a contemporary poem by Giovanni Boccaccio: Diana assembles young women to hunt animals that later transform into marriageable men. The back of the tray shows a personification of Justice, alongside coats of arms likely representing the infant’s parents; the one at left belonged to the Salviati, a prominent Florentine family.
- Attributed to
- Lorenzo di Niccolò
- Title
- Childbirth tray (desco da parto); obverse: Diana and Actaeon, reverse: Justice
- Date
- ca. 1380-1400
- Place of Creation
- Firenze
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Tempera and gold leaf on wood panel
- Dimensions
- 25 1/8 x 25 3/8 x 1 3/4 in. (63.8 x 64.5 x 4.4 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Foundation
- Accession Number
- 78.78
