18th C Italian Hand Painted Orange Cassapanca Bench

The Cassapanca is structurally in very good condition, and the paintwork is still bright, with signs of the expected wear such a piece would bear after 250 years. The folding top to the seated area still has the original iron hinges.
These are extremely hard to come across, particularly of this age and in such good condition, this Cassapanca is of a very usable size.

Cassapanca History
When a cassone or “large chest” belonging to rich Italian merchants and aristocrats in the Late Middle Ages was provided with a high paneled back, it evolved into a cassapanca, “chest-bench”, which was the forerunner of the sofa. The Italian Renaissance painted cassapanca, while functioning as piece of furniture, was also a canvas for the exuberant decoration of painters from the Baroque era. These artists would cover the entire surface of the bench and back panel with crests, legendary figures and trompe-l’oeil, French for “fool the eye”. Sometimes called illusionist furniture, this style of painted furniture dates back to the early Renaissance where ceilings, walls, and even furniture was painted to portray three dimensional architectural and sculptural elements.

Measures: width 129 cm x height 105 cm x depth 36.5 cm.
Seat height 43.5 cm. Height of back 61.5 cm.