A Childbirth Tray with the Trial of Moses

Abstract

During the Italian Renaissance, primarily in Florence but also more broadly in Tuscany and elsewhere, painted wooden trays (deschi da parto), as well as painted wooden bowls (tafferie da parto), were used to encourage, celebrate, and commemorate childbirth. Less than a hundred are known today, some intact and others fragmentary. However, during the height of their popularity, it is very likely that thousands of these trays and bowls were made for families across the economic spectrum. Like the painted marriage chests with which they are frequently associated, they were handed down from parent to child or sold on the