拍品专文
Caskets such as the present example would likely have been used as jewelry boxes and more than 20 examples depicting scenes of infant boys playing, music making and harvesting are extant today. This iconographic theme is collectively known as jeux d’enfants (children’s games) and is executed in the all’antica style. The subject matter would suggest that such boxes would be particularly appropriate as gifts to celebrate weddings or the birth of a son. The iconography of naked putti or infants playing is reminiscent of the scenes found on Italian fifteenth-century birth trays and sixteenth century maiolica childbirth sets (Higgott, op. cit. p. 227). The compositions of the scenes in the present lot are derived from an engraving by the IB Master, after Raphael, dated 1529. A comparable casket depicting the jeux d’enfants at the Louvre Museum also derives its compositions from the same Master IB engraving (inv. MR 2512).