Birth Tray with the Birth of the Baptist

The artwork

On 15 January 1527 Alderighi della Casa was born in Florence, and for his birth Pontormo painted this round tray. It comes printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The birth of Saint John the Baptist painted in a tondo, the shape of birth trays.
• A tondo looks good in a bedroom, in an entrance hall, above a chest of drawers.
• The gift for a birth, a christening, a new mother.

In Renaissance Florence, sweets and gifts were brought to a woman who had just given birth on a painted tray, the desco da parto. The tray then stayed in the home as a keepsake.

This one was painted for the first child of Girolamo della Casa and Lisabetta Tornaquinci. Pontormo made it from a single poplar plank and on the main side painted the birth of Saint John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. On the back, two grotesque figures with beak-like faces hold the coats of arms of the two families, inside a frame painted to look like porphyry.

The original is in the Uffizi and is on display at the exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome.

In a bedroom or a nursery, it brings into your home a Florentine tradition from five hundred years ago. It is the gift for anyone expecting a baby or who has just welcomed one.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
Framed size: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with a gold fillet, handmade, with glass