Spalliera

A spalliera is a decorated backboard mounted on a wall, often behind a cassone (a wooden chest used for storage), or as a headboard to a bed. It is usually made out of wood and embellished with decorative aspects such as intricate carving or painting, and is gilded as well. They were common in Renaissance Tuscany.

Piero di Cosimo was one of the better known painters who produced many paintings whose wide format suggests that this was their original function; most have now been given conventional picture frames.