CIRCA 1530-33, THE REVERSE INSCRIBED BY NICOLA DA URBINO

This plate, which is currently unrecorded, is an exciting addition to three other pieces from a set which has the same coat-of-arms. The three pieces, now all in museums, are a large plate painted with Camillus saving Rome,1 a plate painted with Caesar leaving Rome (inscribed Chome Cesare siparti di Roma)2 and a plate painted with Daedalus and Pasiphae.3

The coat-of-arms is for the Paleologo Marquesses of Montferrat. The last Paleologo marquess was Giovanni Giorgio Paleologo (1488-1533), who was marquess between 1530 and 1533, establishing the terminus ante quem for this plate as mid-1533. In armorial terms, it is possible that the plate could have been executed slightly earlier in the time of Bonifacio IV (1512-1530), who succeeded as marquess in 1518, but stylistically this plate appears to date from 1530 or the following few years, making it much more likely that it was painted in Giovanni Giorgio's time as marquess.4

Giovanni Giorgio Paleologo died childless, and his heir was his niece, Margherita, who married Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in 1531. Unlike nearly all states in Italy, the marquisate of Montferrat could be passed on via the female line. After her uncle's death in 1533, Margherita became Marchesa del Monferrato suo jure. In 1536 Emperor Charles V conferred the Montferrat title to Federico, and the marquisate subsequently continued in the Gonzaga family lineage.

It is currently thought by some scholars that the set with the Paleologo arms (of which this plate is a part), and a set painted for Federico and Margherita with their impaled Gonzaga Paleologo arms,5 is actually 'part of a single service or commission'. It is also thought that the two surviving plates which bear the impresa of Federico Gonzaga6 (and no coat-of-arms) could also be part of the same service or commission, and that the three groups 'should be seen as one'. However, there is no documentary evidence for this view.7

It is much more probable that the set with Paleologo arms and the set with impaled Gonzaga Paleologo arms are distinct commissions, as originally suggested by John Mallet in 1981.8 It seems unlikely that the Paleologo Marquess's arms would be used for Margherita when she was married to a duke, and her uncle was the marquess. It seems equally unlikely that Margherita would simultaneously use the Paleologo arms and the impaled Gonzaga Paleologo arms. Her husband Federico was anxious to ensure that the marquisate continued in the Gonzaga family line, and after Giovanni Giorgio's death it took three years for Federico to have this formally confirmed by the Emperor Charles V.9 It seems improbable that Margherita would emphasize this by using her Paleologo arms after her uncle's death. The circumstances behind the commission of the Paleologo set currently remains unclear, but it is very likely that the commission was connected in some way to the Gonzaga family. Federico's sister, Eleonora Gonzaga (1493-1550) had commissioned Nicola da Urbino to paint an armorial maiolica service for their mother, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), in the 1520s,10 and it is thought that other armorial services painted by Nicola at a similar time could have been commissioned via connections with the Gonzaga family.11

One possibility is that the circumstances surrounding Federico Gonzaga's union with Margherita Paleologo in 1531 could have necessitated a gift to her uncle, the Marquess. The Paleologo Marquesses of Montferrat were a cadet branch of the famous Palaeologus family, the last dynasty to rule Byzantium until the fall of the city and its empire in 1453. Not only did the Paleologo family have important ancestry, but the marquisate of Montferrat was politically and strategically significant. Federico Gonzaga's mother, Isabella d'Este, was from an old aristocratic family, and was eager for her son to marry well. At the time the Gonzagas were very 'new' to the aristocracy; it had been less than a hundred years since Gianfrancesco Gonzaga had bought the title of Marquess of Mantua from Emperor Sigismund for 120,000 gold florins in 1433.12 A Gonzaga Paleologo marriage would enhance the Gonzaga family's standing, and Isabella successfully engineered a marriage between her son Federico and Maria Paleologo (1508-1530). They married in 1517 when she was only eight, and the marriage contract stipulated that Maria would remain with her parents until she turned sixteen, when she could move to Mantua and the marriage could be consummated.

Federico became marquis of Mantua in 1519, and by then better marriage prospects had cropped up, and he persistently delayed the arrival of his bride to Mantua. In addition, Federico sired two illegitimate children by Isabella Buschetti, the beautiful wife of Count Francesco Gonzaga Calvisano (a cadet branch of the Gonzaga family). With the help of his mother Isabella, in 1529 he obtained permission from Pope Clement VII for an annulment of the unconsummated marriage. However, the current marquess of Montferrat, Maria's younger brother Bonifacio IV, had an accident while hunting and died in June 1530. The last male heir in the Paleologo line was now Maria's uncle, who was old and unwell, and it was clear that before long Maria would be the new heir.

Given that the marquisate could pass via Maria through to the Gonzaga family, bringing with it significant territorial gain for the Gonzagas, Federico changed his direction rapidly. He now pursued Maria, feigning bouts of terrible guilt for having annulled the marriage before consummation. The Pope obligingly declared the marriage still valid, but as this declaration arrived Maria died suddenly in September 1530, aged only twenty-one, leaving her younger sister, Margherita, the heir to her uncle's territories, title and fortune. Federico's attention then turned to Margherita, whom he married instead, in October 1531.

Against this backdrop it is tempting to speculate whether the Paleologo set could have been given to Margherita's uncle, Giovanni Giorgio Paleologo, by Federico around the time of their marriage in 1531, or even slightly before, in 1530. A few months after Bonifacio's death in 1530, an exchange of correspondence between 'Ioanfrancesco, alias El Poeta' in Pesaro and Federico's secretary took place which suggests that Federico was intending to commission a maiolica service. In the first letter, dated 1 August 1530, Giovan Francesco 'El Poeta' wrote:

'I have been in Urbino and have seen really excellent ware painted with landscapes, fables and histories, to my eyes of surpassing beauty, and have explained to them about the service of which you wrote to me. The answer has been that they can't tell me the price unless they know the quality and quantity, but they say two gold ducats, and two and a half for one of those big dishes' and he goes on to say '..but I didn't tell them why I want the said service'13

On 25 August El Poeta wrote to Federico's secretary again, saying that he felt certain he could arrange for the price to be lowered, and asking for specification of the number and types of pieces:

'because when your wishes and those of my Lord Duke are understood, as soon as I can I shall set off and will arrange for the said maiolica, and I believe I shall have nearly a hundred pieces for the twenty-five scudi, leaving out the large dishes which cost a scudo each'.

It is possible that these letters could refer to an order for a maiolica service to be given by Federico to the Marquess of Montferrat, but in the absence of further documentary evidence this is pure speculation, as it could refer to a different order, or the order may never have been carried out. Although it is possible that Federico had intended the service to be for himself, as El Poeta wrote '...but I didn't tell them why I want the said service', could it be more likely that the service was intended for someone else? Whether the service was gifted to the marquess or not remains unclear, but it is interesting to note that after Gian Giorgio's death in 1533, Federico should have felt it necessary to make a payment to his widow.14

The subject depicted on the plate appears to be a curious choice, as it does not fit with the more usual themes taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses or from Roman History, among others. The inscription on the reverse Vitru uio di archite ctura principe e michael translates as 'Vitruvius, the prince of architecture, and Michael', and this is followed by a monogram, which appears to be TF or FT, the significance of which is not yet clear.

The sculptor, hammering away furiously at a block of stone, is presumably Michelangelo as the inscription on the reverse suggests. He has been given a rather idealised and classicised appearance, and his profile does not strictly resemble Michelangelo's profile, but curiously, the face of the stone herm in the centre, however, does appear to resemble Michelangelo's features. It is remarkable that the living artist Michelangelo should be depicted together with Vitruvius, the great man from Antiquity, and it also remarkable because it appears to be a unique depiction of Michelangelo on maiolica.15 There are two additional inscriptions on the steps below Vitruvius; 10 and Victrv.16 Vitruvius is shown holding a book, and it seems plausible that 10 should refer to book 10 of Vitruvius's De architectura, or 'Ten Books of Architecture',17 which discusses, amongst other things, the use and construction of machines and Roman siege engines. In the sixteenth century, artists were frequently engaged in developing the cutting-edge technology of war machines or fortifications, and a possible link between Michelangelo and Vitruvius's book 10 is that Michelangelo was responsible for the fortifications of Florence during its siege in 1530 by Imperial and Papal forces.18

Whatever the significance of the subject of this plate, it is unclear if it was indented to be fully understood by the recipient. Nicola's service made for Isabella d'Este in the 1520s clearly had the client in mind, as it is adorned with her personal devices and imprese, which were 'a source of particular pleasure in the conversations presided over by Elisabetta Gonzaga'.19 However, other aspects of the d'Este service suggest that Nicola depicted whatever themes he saw fit, along with how they were depicted. John Mallet noted Nicola's 'mingling within a single service of stories without any obvious connecting theme' and he pointed out that on pieces with subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses Nicola 'does not illustrate the narrative of Ovid's Latin but rather the text in Italian that accompanies the Venetian woodcuts.20 Had Nicola been following instructions from Isabella and the learned humanists of the Court of Mantua, this would surely not have been the case'.21

A print resembling the figure of Vitruvius has not been found. It is possible that Nicola could have used Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving Hercules Killing the Centaur Nessus22 as a source of inspiration for his figure of Michelangelo, as the pose is very similar, but the pose of the lower part of the body is closer to another figure (in reverse) on a circle of Marcantonio Raimondi print, so it is equally possible that both figures of Vitruvius and Michelangelo are Nicola's own. Although in the 1530s Nicola did make use of more sophisticated prints, principally after Raphael's works, he was not a painter who was reliant on prints, unlike some of his fellow painters working in Urbino at that time.


1. Which is larger (45 cm. diameter), and at Wawel, Cracow, see Maria Piatkiewicz-Dereniowa, Majolika wloska w zbiorach wawelskich, Cracow, 1975, no. 22.
2. In the Museo Correr, Venice, see G. Liverani, 'Le 'Credenze' maiolicate di Isabella d'Este-Gonzaga e di Federico II Duca di Mantova', in Corriere de'Ceramisti, no. 17, 1939, p. 14.
3. In the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, see E. Ivanova, Exhibition Catalogue, Il secolo d'oro della maiolica. Ceramica italiana dei secoli XV-XVI dalla raccolta del Museo Statale dell'Ermitage, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, 2003, no. 36 (Hermitage inventory phi 3033).
4. During the 1530s Nicola's style of execution became more free than it had been in the 1520s, and he used russet-coloured shading on the flesh of his figures.
5. Four pieces of the set are painted by Nicola da Urbino, and if a fifth piece, a large dish with the same impaled arms which is signed and dated by Francesco Xanto Avelli, is part of the same Gonzaga Paleologo set, then Xanto must have worked in collaboration with Nicola on the set, as he did with some other armorial commissions. Nicola's four pieces are all undated, but Xanto's dish is dated 1533. It is therefore plausible that the date for the Gonzaga Paleologo set could also be 1533, but there is no firm evidence for this. For the British Museum Gonzaga Paleologo plate, and a listing of the other pieces, see Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A catalogue of the British Museum collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, pp. 240-243, no. 147.
6. The impresa or device of Mount Olympus was granted to Federico Gonzaga, along with his title of Duke of Mantua, by Emperor Charles V in 1530.
7. A view held by Thornton and Wilson, see ibid., 2009, Vol. I, p. 242. The case for all three groups possibly belonging to one commission has been made on stylistic grounds and the iconographical scheme of the pieces. Iconographical pairings between pieces from the three different groups have been made, but it is not certain that the Xanto dish belongs to the set, and although there appears to be some schematic unity between some of the pieces, there is not schematic unity between all of the pieces from the three different groups. It was characteristic for Nicola to not necessarily depict scenes which have any unifying theme; his earlier service for Isabella d'Este includes pieces which do not have any thematic relationship with others in the set.
8. See J.V.G. Mallet, 'Mantua and Urbino: Gonzaga Patronage of Maiolica', Apollo, September 1981, p. 169, note 31. He has however revised this view; see J.V.G. Mallet, 'Nicola da Urbino and Francesco Xanto Avelli', Faenza, No. IV-VI, 2007, p. 233.
9. The marquisate was a fiefdom of the Empire, and the title was conferred on Federico by Emperor Charles V on 29th November 1536, officially confirming that the marquisate would continue in the Gonzaga line, in addition to his other territories and title as Duke of Mantua. 10. For the most current discussion of the service made for Isabella d'Este, see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, ibid., 2009, Vol. I, pp. 230-236. A tondino from this service was sold by Christie's Paris on 17 December 2009, lot 50.
11. See Thornton and Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 238 for a discussion of the possible connections with the Calini Service and the Valenti Gambera Service.
12. See Charles M. Rosenberg (ed.), The Court Cities of Northern Italy, Milan, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Pesaro, and Rimini, New York, 2010, p. 14, note 11.
13. The letter was written to Gianjacopo Calandra, cited by G. Vitaletti, Francesco Xanto Avelli, 1912, pp. 7-8, note 2, and by J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 1981, p. 167.
14. In addition to seeking Emperor Charles V's confirmation of his position as Marquess of Montferrat, see note 9. Before he became marquess Giovanni Giorgio had given up his bishopric and had been laicized, enabling him to become marquess. He married on 21st April 1533 but died only 9 days later.
15. Depictions of Michelangelo's works on maiolica are known, including a ewer stand in the British Museum depicting Michelangelo's David, which curiously appears to have been derived from Raphael's drawing of the sculpture, see Thornton and Wilson, ibid., pp. 246-249.
16. On previous services, such as the Correr Museum Service (in Venice), Nicola included inscriptions below the various characters depicted to identify them. See Françoise Barbe, et al., Exhibition Catalogue, Majolique, La faïence italienne au temps des humanistes 1480-1530, Château d'Ecouen, October 2011-February 2012, Paris, 2011, pp. 164-195. Whether the Victrv was intended as an abbreviated form of Vitruvius, or if it refers to something different, is unclear.
17. The Roman writer, architect and engineer, who served in the Roman army under Julius Caesar. Vitruvius's 'De architectura', or 'Ten Books of Architecture', is the most complete architectural book to have survived from Antiquity. Divided into ten parts, it covers almost every aspect of Roman building from temples, town planning and building materials to war machines.
18. The citizens of Florence had been in revolt from Medici rule for three years. The Medici Pope, Clement VII, with support from Charles V, retook Florence and established Medici rule. The siege of Florence followed the terrible events of the Sack of Rome three years earlier in 1527, which had traumatised Italy and profoundly affected people at all levels of society, including many artists. Political allegories were being painted on maiolica at Urbino at that time, so it is conceivable that this plate may refer to the siege of Florence in a political way. Xanto Avelli and Giulio da Urbino, who worked in close proximity to Nicola in Urbino, were producing political allegories on their maiolica in response to the Sack of Rome and the Siege of Florence, see Dora Thornton, 'An allegory of the Sack of Rome by Giulio da Urbino', Apollo Magazine, June 1999, pp. 11-18, and J.V.G. Mallet, 'Xanto: i suoi compagni e seguaci' in Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo Atti del Convegno Internazionale di studi 1980, Rovigo, 1987, p. 77.
19. Spesso si faceano imprese, come oggidì chiamiamo: Catiglione, Il Cortegiano, I, 5, cited by Thornton and Wilson, ibid, 2009, p. 232.
20. The woodcuts were the illustrations in Ovidio metamorphoseos vulgare published in Venice in 1497.
21. J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 1981, p. 165.
22. Bartsch, Vol. 26, p. 278, no. 290 (221).