Cassone Panel

c. 1410
This panel used to form one wall of a marriage chest, or cassone, most likely given as a matrimonial gift to a bride. The left side of the panel depicts a wedding ceremony, the center the journey of the couple to the groom’s house, and the right side the wedding feast that takes place inside the groom’s house.
Victoria & Albert Museum

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: This representation of the marriage process emphasizes the groom’s dominance as the wife becomes transported into his custody. The allegorical figure in the background, a woman who represents Constancy, holds a scroll that reads Non mouva… il cor meo - my heart does not move. This depiction suggests that it is the woman who must remain steadfast in fidelity to her new family as she physically moves away from her former household. At the same time, the groom kneels before the bride and her female companions at the feast, signifying that in at least some respects she exerts a kind of power over him.

Community Social Norms: In this object, people appear arrayed to commemorate the marriage. Other women, possibly elders, accompany the bride at the ceremony and at the feast. She clearly participates in a tradition. The groom, too, receives positive social sanction in teh form of a comrade patting him on the shoulder as he exchanges rings with the bride.

Church and State: The ring exchange on the left side of the panel contains an authority figure who presides over the ceremony, standing between the bride and the groom. The different hat might signify that this is a priest. If this presiding figure is a priest, or if he is a political authority, the ring exchange occurs in the presence of a representative of an institution of authority. The betrothal clearly occurs in a public setting with witnesses.

What is Love: This object highlights fidelity, commemoration, celebration, and gender dynamics. Love, however, remains signaled only by the use of the word cor in the statement from Constancy. Hardly the passionate display in the literature of courtly romance or the songs of Guillaume Machaut, this object emphasizes the larger communal aspects of medieval marriage.