Panel from a Cassone: The Race of the Palio in the Streets of Florence

The image captures the concluding moments of Florence’s Palio, a street horse race held on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, June 24. Crowds in vivid attire line the narrow thoroughfare, while riders surge past the city’s brick towers, emphasizing communal participation in the festival.

Executed in tempera on wood, the scene employs bright pigments and careful modeling to convey movement and the bustling atmosphere. Architectural elements are rendered with linear perspective, while the figures are stylized in the early 15th‑century Florentine manner, balancing narrative clarity with decorative detail.

The panel’s counterpart, depicting the procession of the Palio banners, resides in Florence’s Bargello Museum. Together they once flanked the interior of the same cassone, illustrating both the pre‑race ceremony and its climax. The chest was likely commissioned for the wedding and later disassembled as tastes changed.

In the early 1400s, Florentine families often commemorated marriages with elaborately painted cassoni, integrating personal heraldry and contemporary events. The inclusion of a civic race underscores the importance of public festivals in civic identity and the desire to embed the couple’s union within the city’s collective memory.