With regard to form, the Italian dower chest follows that of the sarcophagus of Antiquity: it is coffin-shaped, has a one-piece lid and stands on lion’s feet. During the Renaissance, storage furniture of this type was initially painted. Later on it was embellished using intarsia (wood inlay), and later still was decorated mostly with carving.

It is possible that in 15th-century Florence there existed guilds for painters employed in the painting of dower chests, but the greatest painters, too, created works for such pieces of furniture. In the world’s major museums there are many so-called "cassone" pictures that were originally panels on dower chests. The chests themselves wore out, enduring only seldom.

One such survival is our chest with a scene showing Griselda (this is the work of an unknown Umbrian artist). Tradition has it that this chest was among the furniture belonging to Francesca Pindi, who was from Padua. It is no coincidence that Griselda, the ideal spouse figure known from the Bocaccio novel also, features on the front panel of the chest, since she serves to draw attention to the virtues expected of wives. Especially fine is the depiction - still without the use of perspective - of the horsemen scene in the middle field.

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