Procession of Thetis

Start with the shape. The panel is 150 centimetres across and barely 40 high because it was the front of a piece of furniture. In Florence around 1490 a marriage meant a pair of painted chests, cassoni, carried through the streets in procession to the bride's new house and then kept in the bedchamber for linen and clothes.

The story fits the occasion. Thetis is a sea goddess whom the gods marry off to a mortal, Peleus, and their son is Achilles. Her procession crosses the water here, a convoy of gods and sea creatures, with the central pair riding a chariot drawn by swans.

The companion front, the wedding feast itself, is in the Louvre as well. Both were given to the museum in 1902 by the comte Caroillon de Vandeul. The chests themselves are long gone.