A painted ''desco da parto'' (a birth tray or birth salver; : ''deschi da parto'') was an important symbolic gift on the occasion of a successful birth in late medieval and

Early Modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

. The surviving painted ''deschi'' represented in museum collections were commissioned by elite families, but inventories show that birth trays and other special birth objects like embroidered pillows were kept long after the successful birth in families of all classes: when

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...

died, the inventory shows that the ''desco da parto'' given by his father to his mother,

Lucrezia Tornabuoni Lucrezia Tornabuoni (22 June 1427 – 28 March 1482) was an Italian noblewoman, wife of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, de facto Lord of Florence and his political adviser. Lucrezia had significant political influence during the rule of her husband ...

, at her

lying-in Lying-in is the term given to the European forms of postpartum confinement, the traditional practice involving long bed rest before and after giving birth. The term and the practice it describes are old-fashioned or archaic, but lying-in u ...

, was hanging in his private quarters to the day of his death. A ''desco da parto'' need not have been specially commissioned; they were produced in workshops in series for stock, often being personalised with a

coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achiev ...

when they were bought. There was a distinctive repertoire of

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

for the trays, the

recto ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ...

(top) sides sharing much with that for the painted

cassone A cassone (plural ''cassoni'') or marriage chest is a rich and showy Italian type of chest, which may be inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded. ''Pastiglia'' was decoration in low relief carved or moulded in ...

chests often used as gifts at marriage, but also with

verso ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ...

(bottom) sides often showing scenes of mothers after

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...

or pin-up figures of boy toddlers, accompanied by the coats of arms of both parents. After being used as a tray during the period of

postpartum confinement Postpartum confinement is a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the seclusion or special treatment lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one mo ...

, they could be hung on a wall as a painting.

Usage

Infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...

was highest during the crucial first days, when the mother might also succumb to

childbed fever {{Short pages monitor