Severo Calzetta da Ravenna

(Ravenna, 1465 - Ravenna, 1543)

Workshop of

This fine writing box is a Renaissance invention. Facades decorated with centaurs, shield-bearing putti and Medusa heads – all the iconographic heritage of the Renaissance concentrated in a single object.

This box is very well known and can be found in many museums and private collections. Feets of all known models differ: in this case they are dolphins, but could be also atlases, feral paws or turtles.

The attributions range from the school of Donatello to Caradosso, from Severo da Ravenna to Mantuan school of Mantegna. Following the recent meticulous cataloguing done by Mark Gregory d'Apuzzo for the similar box in the Museo Medievale in Bologna, here the attribution to Severo Calzetta da Ravenna’s workshop is proposed.

This box has a lid which, having no hinges, can only be placed on and not rotated.