Lot Essay
This type of bacile trilobato with a combination of istoriato and grottesche decoration and affronte swans in relief on the reverse is found in at lease five other instances. Two were in the Spitzer Collection, see Émile Molinier, Catalogue de la Collection Spitzer, 1892, vol. IV, nos. 53 and 54, and one is in the British Museum, (MLA 1889,9-2,28), see Timothy Wilson, Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance, no. 241, p. 153. Another clearly intended for Alfonso II, Duke of Este, in the Louvre, is illustrated by Jeanne Giacomotti, Les Majoliques des Musées Nationaux, p. 361, no. 1081. The remaining example is in the Getty Museum, see Catharine Hess, Italian Maiolica, Catalogue of the Collections, no. 34, pp. 112-115
All six dishes display variant combinations of istoriato and grottesche decoration. Two, the present and the British Museum examples, depict scenes from the story of Joseph taken from the Quadrins Historiques de la Bible first published in 1553 in several languages by Jean de Tournes in Lyons. Other decorative features on the present lot have more in common with the Getty example which displays the same cameo medallions and a similar Vitruvian frieze around the central medallion
This class of ware has been ascribed to both the Fontana and the Patanazzi workshop, and many pieces are presumed to have come from the Service of Guidobaldo della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. While it is clear that all the pieces did indeed emanate from his courtly circle there is insufficient evidence to determine which were indeed made for him. As for Fontana and Patanazzi, here again the relationship between the work of the two botteghe is by no means clear. Technically the present example seems closest to the Getty dish, attributed in the catalogue to Orazio Fontana or his Workshop
All six dishes display variant combinations of istoriato and grottesche decoration. Two, the present and the British Museum examples, depict scenes from the story of Joseph taken from the Quadrins Historiques de la Bible first published in 1553 in several languages by Jean de Tournes in Lyons. Other decorative features on the present lot have more in common with the Getty example which displays the same cameo medallions and a similar Vitruvian frieze around the central medallion
This class of ware has been ascribed to both the Fontana and the Patanazzi workshop, and many pieces are presumed to have come from the Service of Guidobaldo della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. While it is clear that all the pieces did indeed emanate from his courtly circle there is insufficient evidence to determine which were indeed made for him. As for Fontana and Patanazzi, here again the relationship between the work of the two botteghe is by no means clear. Technically the present example seems closest to the Getty dish, attributed in the catalogue to Orazio Fontana or his Workshop