An incredibly detailed and early Venetian Cassone or ‘coffer’ c.1680. With expressive painting depicting Merman amongst foliate scroll work, holding a central armorial or plaque of raised Pastiglia housing a scene featuring a ‘Momento Mori’. The central emblem shows figures holding - and surrounded by - mounds of human skulls (possibly sailors lost at sea or warriors lost in battle). In a deep blood red shade of ‘Sangue di Bue’, with an aged patinated surface.