CIRCA 1555, PROBABLY PAINTED BY ORAZIO FONTANA AT THE FONTANA WORKSHOP

Details

AN URBINO ARMORIAL ISTORIATO DISH
CIRCA 1555, PROBABLY PAINTED BY ORAZIO FONTANA AT THE FONTANA WORKSHOP
Painted with a scene from the story of Josias, the King seated on a throne before a wall carpet below a canopy, among courtiers, attendants and priests, a high priest reading from an open book on a lecturn, above steps in an interior, a coat of arms to the left, the reverse inscribed in blue script josias legere facit librii/federis: within concentric yellow circles (rim chip to underside between 11 and 12 o'clock with short associated glaze crack to reverse, minute rim chip at 10 o'clock)
10 3/8 in. (26.5 cm.) diam.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The subject on the present dish is taken from the woodcut by Hans Sebald Beham: Biblischen Historien, Frankfurt 1533. The same subject appears on two dishes in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Brunswick, see Johanna Lessmann, Italianische Maiolica, Katalog der Sammlung Herzog Anton-Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig (Brunswick, 1979), p. 206, no. 199 and p. 208 no. 202.

No other pieces with this coat of arms are evident in the literature.

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