Although the tradition of decorated chests can be traced back to ancient Egypt, where examples have been found in tombs of the pharaohs, the form of the Frick cassoni derives more directly from classical marble sarcophagi and from contemporary Renaissance tombs. Both in their shapes and in their ornamentation and narrative panels the chests reflect the Renaissance revival of antiquity. Scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses are depicted in the carved panels of both cassoni:  on one the scenes closely follow the story of the Contest of Apollo and Marsyas and the Flaying of Marsyas, while on its companion (illustrated) appear Apollo and Daphne and Apollo playing to the beasts. These compositions are based in part on woodcut illustrations that appeared in editions of the Metamorphoses published at Lyon in French in 1557 and in Italian two years later, indicating that the chests cannot have been produced before the third quarter of the sixteenth century. The style of the carved panel figures, with their dramatic flying draperies, suggests comparison not only with book illustration but also with contemporary relief sculpture in bronze, reflecting the strong interrelation in the Renaissance between the applied and fine arts. On the central panel of each chest is an elaborate escutcheon with the arms of one of the families who commissioned them, and at the front corners are large, almost freestanding putti.