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Lot Essay
This magnificent wine-cooler was acquired by Sir Archibald Campbell, 2nd Bart. (d. 1846) between 1820-30 and formed part of his extensive collection of old master paintings and decorative arts at Garscube House, Glasgow. It is not known how the wine-cooler entered the collection at Garscube but it has been in Britain since the first half of the 19th century. The wine-cooler would have once formed part of an important princely service and may have been part of the banqueting service ordered by Guidobaldo della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (1514-1574), as a diplomatic gift for Philip II, King of Spain (1527-1598) and now known as the 'Spanish Service'. Guidobaldo II was one of the greatest and most prolific patrons of the arts during the Renaissance. The Duke commissioned a series of maiolica designs by the artist Taddeo Zuccaro, who was called from Rome to his native Urbino in order to paint a portrait of the Duke's daughter Virginia, on the occasion of her marriage to Federico Borromeo. Taddeo and his younger brother Frederico Zuccaro's drawings are rare examples of artwork commissioned for direct use by maiolica painters. For a discussion of the Zuccaro brothers and how their drawings were adapted by maiolica painters, and for illustrations of their drawings, see J.A. Gere, 'Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica', The Burlington Magazine, July 1963, No. 105, pp. 306-315. Vasari notes 'Before he left (Taddeo Zuccaro), he made all the drawings for a service which the Duke (Guidobaldo) had carried out in earthenware at Castel Durante, as a present for King Philip of Spain.'1 The marriage took place in 1560 and a document dated 17 December 1562 refers to the completed service, noting that it was decorated with scenes from the life of Julius Caesar. Paolo Mario of Urbino, writing on the 17 September 1562, notes 'I have found that more care has been taken over the making of that earthenware service than if it had been made of precious stones. The drawings were brought here from Rome, drawing by drawing, by the hand of a celebrated painter, who has with the greatest skill and effort depicted all the history and deeds of Julius Caesar...'2 The subject matter of Caesar's Gallic War or Civil War (with the addition of some more obscure events relating to Caesar's victories) provided appropriate iconography for a royal service that alluded to the political and military allegiance between Philip II of Spain and the Duke of Urbino. Spanish military prowess was complimented by the depiction of Julius Caesar's victories and at the same time the Duke of Urbino could allude to his rich cultural and dynastic heritage. The spina (which had three tapering cones, which were sometimes topped with egg-shaped ornament) depicted at the turning point of the chariot race in the central scene of the present wine-cooler was also the personal badge of Duke Guidobaldo and can be seen on contemporary coinage and appears beside the doorway of the Palazzo Comunale di Fossombrone in Urbino, dating from circa 1564.
Zuccaro's 'Corsa delle bighe', or Chariot Race also appears as part of Federico Brandani's stucco relief design above a fireplace in the Palazzo Ducale, Pesaro, see Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, Vol. I, Milan, 1998, p. 101, note 68.3 It is one of fifty drawings which have been identified as probable designs for the Spanish Service. A series of drawings were initially published by John Gere in 1963 and these were supplemented by others by Sir Timothy Clifford, 'Some unpublished drawings for maiolica and Federico Zuccaro's role in the 'Spanish Service', in Timothy Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery, Papers written in association with a colloquium at the British Museum, London, 1991, pp. 166-176. The designs proved so popular that they continued to be used on maiolica after the production of the 'Spanish Service', see the dish decorated with a version of Taddeo Zuccaro's Chariot Race, in the collection of the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, illustrated by Cristina Acidini Luchinat, ibid., 1998, p. 91, pl. 21. Several of the designs appear repeatedly on maiolica, including that of a naval battle pageant which appears on four wine-coolers, including one of the same form as the present example, in the Prado, see Esperanza Aguire y Gil de Biedma et al., Felipell II, un Monarca y su Época un Príncipe del Renacimiento, Museo del Prado, Exhibition Catalogue, 13 October 1998 - 10 January 1999, no. 294. This wine-cooler may possibly have come from the Spanish royal collection and is consequently the only link with the service in Spain.
Wilson and Thornton discuss the 'Spanish Service' stating that 'there are no pieces known to us that can definitely be said to have formed part of the Zuccaro service actually sent to Spain in 1562', see Italian Renaissance Ceramics, a Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, p. 407. The service was most likely decorated with grotteschi on a white ground and reserved with Julius Caesar figure subjects and evidence suggests that the Fontana workshop (particularly Orazio) was producing higher quality maiolica decorated with grotteschi on a white-ground. Wilson and Thornton note that at the beginning of the 18th century, Bernardini Baldi attributed to Orazio a service made for Guidobaldo to present to the King of Spain.4 However, there are no definitive records of this service being sent to Spain.
Grotesque decoration on maiolica was ultimately derived from Roman domestic murals, such as those in the so-called Golden House of Nero. The frescoes in the Vatican Loggia carried out by Giovanni da Udine between 1517-1519 under the direction of Raphael used grotesque decoration, but this style was not adopted by maiolica painters until the 1560s. This style dominated maiolica production in Urbino and elsewhere well into the seventeenth century and is associated with the Fontana and Patanazzi workshops in particular. Very few specific sources for these grotteschi designs have been identified, although a series of etchings by the architect, designer and engraver Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau, known as the 'Petites Grotesques', published in Orléans and Paris in 1550 and 1562 are known to have been used by maiolica painters. For a discussion of Ducerceau's designs and their appearance on two trilobed basins, one in the Ashmolean and another in the British Museum, see Christopher Poke, 'Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau's 'Petites Grotesques' as a source for Urbino maiolica decoration', The Burlington Magazine, June 2001, No. 1179, pp. 332-344.
One of the classical figures in a coloured medallion on the border has been identified as the figure of Greek Philosopher Diogenes reading amongst rockwork, after a woodcut by Ugo da Carpi (circa 1525) which is after the painting by Parmigianino.
Such large rinfrescatoio were a feature of Urbino credenze, or were placed on the ground either side of the service table. However, examples of this elaborate oval form and large size are extremely rare. Of the other known items that may perhaps form part of the 'Spanish Service', only three other wine-coolers of the same form are recorded. The first, in the collection of the Museo del Prado (noted above) decorated with a naval battle after a drawing by Taddeo Zuccaro and the second is in the Wallace Collection, dated 1574 and signed F·F·F·/VRBINO, whom Bernard Rackham tentatively identified as Flaminio Fontana. The cooler is too late in date to be part of the 1562 Spanish commission, and is most likely to have been from the collection of Cardinal Ferdiando de'Medici; it is decorated with a naval battle after Taddeo Zuccaro (similar to the Prado example and that sold at Sotheby's, mentioned below). It was subsequently in the collection of Vice-Admiral Thomas Brodrick (part of the twenty-three lots of maiolica which were added to the sale of the Earl of Strathmore's pictures at Christie's, on 24 and 25 January 1777, lot 58): 'A MOST noble antique CAULDRON or PHONT of an oval form with masculine Sphinxes resting on an ornamented base, from the Duke of Tuscany's collection', and then entered the collection of Sir Ashton Lever of Alkrington Hall, near Manchester which was disposed of by lottery in 1788 and was won by Mr James Parkinson who exhibited it in a building near Blackfriars Bridge. The wine-cooler was subsequently sold at auction and purchased by 'Carridas 2'; it then entered Sir Richard Wallace's collection via Messrs Durlacher.5 The third similar example was sold as the property of a New York Collector and sold at Sotheby's, New York, 9 March 1950, lot 183 (decorated with the same naval battle and inscribed 'Fatto in Urbino in Botega di Oratio Fontana'); the authenticity of this example has been questioned by Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson.6
Other cisterns or wine-coolers with similar grotteschi ornament and Julius Caesar subject matter, perhaps part of the 'Spanish Service' are recorded, although these differ in that they are either circular or trilobed in form. A circular example supported on lion paw feet decorated with a naval battle is in the collection of The Museo Nazionale del Bargello, see Marino Marini, Fabulae Pictae miti e storie nelle maioliche del rinascimento, Exhibition Catalogue, 16 May - 16 September 2012, p. 99, no. 2; two of the same form are in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the first decorated with the Battle of Thapsus (accession number NMK67) and another with a scene of gladiatorial combat (accession number NMK66). The Battle of Thapsus appears again on an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see Charlotte Vignon, Exuberant Grotesques: Renaissance Maiolica from the Fontana Workshop, Exhibition Catalogue, 15 September 2009 - 17 January 2010, The Frick Collection, p. 24.
1. Vasari-Milanesi, VI, p. 581, cited by J.A. Gere, ibid., 1963, p. 306. The 'Spanish Service' has been attributed to the Fontana workshop, Urbino, and it is possible that Vasari may have been confused by the fact that the Fontanas' first family name was Durantino and they originated from Castel Durante. It is also possible that the Fontanas subcontracted part of this service to maiolica potters in Castel Durante, see Charlotte Vignon, ibid., 2009, p. 25.
2. Cited by Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 406.
3. The author refers to Luigi Nardini, 1931: 'L'immagine ricorre in un rilievo in stucco del Brandani spora un camino nel palazzo ducale di Pesaro'.
4. Baldi 1706, pp. 130-1, cited by Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 407, note 16: 'Nell'arti men nobili, nobilissimo in quella del far Vasi di terra cotta e porcellane fu Horatio Fontana; il quale si portò di maniera ne tempi di Guidobaldo Padre della Altezza Vostra, che le Credenze sue erano del detto Principe, come cosa rara, mandate in dono a gran Signori, al Rè di Spagna, & all Imperatore medesimo.'
5. See A.V.B. Norman, Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Ceramics 1, Pottery, Maiolica, Faience, Stoneware, London, 1976, pp. 218-223, cat. no. C107 for a full discussion of the example in the Wallace Collection and extensive notes regarding its provenance.
6. See Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 406, note 6.
Zuccaro's 'Corsa delle bighe', or Chariot Race also appears as part of Federico Brandani's stucco relief design above a fireplace in the Palazzo Ducale, Pesaro, see Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, Vol. I, Milan, 1998, p. 101, note 68.
Wilson and Thornton discuss the 'Spanish Service' stating that 'there are no pieces known to us that can definitely be said to have formed part of the Zuccaro service actually sent to Spain in 1562', see Italian Renaissance Ceramics, a Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, p. 407. The service was most likely decorated with grotteschi on a white ground and reserved with Julius Caesar figure subjects and evidence suggests that the Fontana workshop (particularly Orazio) was producing higher quality maiolica decorated with grotteschi on a white-ground. Wilson and Thornton note that at the beginning of the 18th century, Bernardini Baldi attributed to Orazio a service made for Guidobaldo to present to the King of Spain.
Grotesque decoration on maiolica was ultimately derived from Roman domestic murals, such as those in the so-called Golden House of Nero. The frescoes in the Vatican Loggia carried out by Giovanni da Udine between 1517-1519 under the direction of Raphael used grotesque decoration, but this style was not adopted by maiolica painters until the 1560s. This style dominated maiolica production in Urbino and elsewhere well into the seventeenth century and is associated with the Fontana and Patanazzi workshops in particular. Very few specific sources for these grotteschi designs have been identified, although a series of etchings by the architect, designer and engraver Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau, known as the 'Petites Grotesques', published in Orléans and Paris in 1550 and 1562 are known to have been used by maiolica painters. For a discussion of Ducerceau's designs and their appearance on two trilobed basins, one in the Ashmolean and another in the British Museum, see Christopher Poke, 'Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau's 'Petites Grotesques' as a source for Urbino maiolica decoration', The Burlington Magazine, June 2001, No. 1179, pp. 332-344.
One of the classical figures in a coloured medallion on the border has been identified as the figure of Greek Philosopher Diogenes reading amongst rockwork, after a woodcut by Ugo da Carpi (circa 1525) which is after the painting by Parmigianino.
Such large rinfrescatoio were a feature of Urbino credenze, or were placed on the ground either side of the service table. However, examples of this elaborate oval form and large size are extremely rare. Of the other known items that may perhaps form part of the 'Spanish Service', only three other wine-coolers of the same form are recorded. The first, in the collection of the Museo del Prado (noted above) decorated with a naval battle after a drawing by Taddeo Zuccaro and the second is in the Wallace Collection, dated 1574 and signed F·F·F·/VRBINO, whom Bernard Rackham tentatively identified as Flaminio Fontana. The cooler is too late in date to be part of the 1562 Spanish commission, and is most likely to have been from the collection of Cardinal Ferdiando de'Medici; it is decorated with a naval battle after Taddeo Zuccaro (similar to the Prado example and that sold at Sotheby's, mentioned below). It was subsequently in the collection of Vice-Admiral Thomas Brodrick (part of the twenty-three lots of maiolica which were added to the sale of the Earl of Strathmore's pictures at Christie's, on 24 and 25 January 1777, lot 58): 'A MOST noble antique CAULDRON or PHONT of an oval form with masculine Sphinxes resting on an ornamented base, from the Duke of Tuscany's collection', and then entered the collection of Sir Ashton Lever of Alkrington Hall, near Manchester which was disposed of by lottery in 1788 and was won by Mr James Parkinson who exhibited it in a building near Blackfriars Bridge. The wine-cooler was subsequently sold at auction and purchased by 'Carridas 2'; it then entered Sir Richard Wallace's collection via Messrs Durlacher.
Other cisterns or wine-coolers with similar grotteschi ornament and Julius Caesar subject matter, perhaps part of the 'Spanish Service' are recorded, although these differ in that they are either circular or trilobed in form. A circular example supported on lion paw feet decorated with a naval battle is in the collection of The Museo Nazionale del Bargello, see Marino Marini, Fabulae Pictae miti e storie nelle maioliche del rinascimento, Exhibition Catalogue, 16 May - 16 September 2012, p. 99, no. 2; two of the same form are in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the first decorated with the Battle of Thapsus (accession number NMK67) and another with a scene of gladiatorial combat (accession number NMK66). The Battle of Thapsus appears again on an example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, see Charlotte Vignon, Exuberant Grotesques: Renaissance Maiolica from the Fontana Workshop, Exhibition Catalogue, 15 September 2009 - 17 January 2010, The Frick Collection, p. 24.
1. Vasari-Milanesi, VI, p. 581, cited by J.A. Gere, ibid., 1963, p. 306. The 'Spanish Service' has been attributed to the Fontana workshop, Urbino, and it is possible that Vasari may have been confused by the fact that the Fontanas' first family name was Durantino and they originated from Castel Durante. It is also possible that the Fontanas subcontracted part of this service to maiolica potters in Castel Durante, see Charlotte Vignon, ibid., 2009, p. 25.
2. Cited by Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 406.
3. The author refers to Luigi Nardini, 1931: 'L'immagine ricorre in un rilievo in stucco del Brandani spora un camino nel palazzo ducale di Pesaro'.
4. Baldi 1706, pp. 130-1, cited by Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 407, note 16: 'Nell'arti men nobili, nobilissimo in quella del far Vasi di terra cotta e porcellane fu Horatio Fontana; il quale si portò di maniera ne tempi di Guidobaldo Padre della Altezza Vostra, che le Credenze sue erano del detto Principe, come cosa rara, mandate in dono a gran Signori, al Rè di Spagna, & all Imperatore medesimo.'
5. See A.V.B. Norman, Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Ceramics 1, Pottery, Maiolica, Faience, Stoneware, London, 1976, pp. 218-223, cat. no. C107 for a full discussion of the example in the Wallace Collection and extensive notes regarding its provenance.
6. See Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, ibid., 2009, p. 406, note 6.