Two-sided childbirth trays, or deschi da parto, were especially popular in Florence from circa 1380 to 1520. Although documentary evidence indicates that these childbirth trays were present in most middle and upper class homes, there are only less than 75 known today. Childbirth trays were made by many of the painters active in the city during that period, from the famous Masaccio to the less famous but very prolific Lo Scheggia and Neri di Bicci, as well as a great number of successful but now anonymous workshops. While some were made on special commission, most were probably workshop productions, intended for sale to the general public with only, perhaps, the addition of coats of arms on reserved shields to personalize them for a particular household or family. Husbands purchased them in advance of pregnancy, and presented them to their wives as talismans for successful birth. Such talismans were critical; Renaissance society had been devastated by recent waves of the Black Death, and promoting and protecting the lineage was a major focus of survivors. But childbirth was oftentimes dangerous; in this era of poor hygiene and oftentimes rampant disease and malnutrion, demographers estimate that perhaps as many as 20% of pregnancies and births resulted in death to either mother or child, or sometimes both. In response to these circumstances, in addition to painted wooden trays women received special clothing, protective devices, and particular food and drink thought to promote safe pregnancies and deliveries.

The imagery on tray fronts ranged from Petrarchan triumphs and other contemporary literary themes to biblical and mythological narratives and, in some cases, representations of bedchambers following childbirth itself, where the mother is surrounded by various attendents and the baby is swaddled or fed. Wellesley's tray is anamolous; it follows the basic outline of a Petrarchan Triumph of Love, with the bow-bearing Cupid shooting his arrows at the lovers ranged around the processional cart pulled by a pair of white horses. The composition is pushed to the front of the picture plane and this immediacy eliminates many of the details more common to trays of this subject; there are fewer lovers, they cannot be identified, and the red banner held aloft by the leading lady has what seems to be a wild boar, a beast unrelated to Petrarch's poem but perhaps a heraldic device of the original owner instead. It seems that our artist, who probably worked from a collection of model drawings, did not know the text and was not aware of all of the specific attributes of a Triumph of Love.

Many trays, like Wellesley's, were planed down in intervening centuries and only survive as one-sided panels. But tray backs were often painted with gameboards to occupy the mother while she recovered, heraldry, or representations of naked cavorting boys that celebrated the much-anticipated child.

Wellesley's Desco da Parto was purchased in honor of Lilian Armstrong, Wellesley class of '58 and professor emerita in the Art Department, through a generous gift from her Wellesley classmate, Phoebe D. Weil.