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Lot Essay
When the present lot surfaced on the market in 1996, the sale catalogue suggested the possibility that what appears to be an indistinct inscription on the reverse could be the name Orazio, for Orazio Fontana, the prominent Urbino maiolica workshop owner.(1) The letters 'O' and 'A' do appear to be reasonably clear, but if these are part of an inscription it is unlikely to relate to Orazio Fontana as this tempietto is more likely to have been made slightly after his death in 1571.(2) Towards the end of the 16th century, maiolica desksets and ornamental sculptural pieces were popular at the court of Urbino. A monumental and very elaborate deskset in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, (3) is marked as being made in the Patanazzi workshop and dated 1584. Wilson notes that the main producers of these sculptural objects were Antonio Patanazzi or his son Francesco, who took over the workshop after Antonio’s death in 1587, but they may not have had a monopoly on them’.(4) Please see www.christies.com for a further discussion about the function of the present temple, which is likely ornamental only.
Footnotes
1. Orazio was active in his father’s workshop as an istoriato painter, and he is thought to have been the author of a series of pieces bearing dates between 1541 and 1544 and monograms which are decipherable as 'ORATIO'. His father, Guido Durantino, who had adopted the name Fontana by 1541, was the most prominent workshop owner in mid-16th century Urbino. A large istoriato plate bearing a monogram on the front and an inscription on the reverse which stated that it was made in the workshop of Guido Durantino in 1542 was in the Schlossmuseum, Berlin, until it was destroyed in the Second World War. For an illustration of this piece, see T. Wilson and E. Sani, Le maioliche rinascimentali nelle collezioni della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia, 2006, pp. 128-129. In 1565 Orazio set up his own workshop, independent from his father’s. For a large ormolu-mounted maiolica jar inscribed FATE.IN BOTEGA.DE ORATIO.FONTANA (made in the workshop of Orazio Fontana), see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A catalogue of the British Museum collection, London, 2009, pp. 333-337, no. 197, where the authors note other pieces with similar inscriptions on p. 335 and on p. 336, note 14.
2. Orazio predeceased his father, and his workshop passed to his nephew Flaminio Fontana. By 1580 it seems Flaminio’s workshop ‘was being run by his collaborator and relative, Antonio Patanazzi’, cf. T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Catalogue of a Private Collection, Turin, 2018, p. 383.
3. T. Wilson, Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 300-303, no. 106.
4. T. Wilson, ibid., 2018, p. 388.
Footnotes
1. Orazio was active in his father’s workshop as an istoriato painter, and he is thought to have been the author of a series of pieces bearing dates between 1541 and 1544 and monograms which are decipherable as 'ORATIO'. His father, Guido Durantino, who had adopted the name Fontana by 1541, was the most prominent workshop owner in mid-16th century Urbino. A large istoriato plate bearing a monogram on the front and an inscription on the reverse which stated that it was made in the workshop of Guido Durantino in 1542 was in the Schlossmuseum, Berlin, until it was destroyed in the Second World War. For an illustration of this piece, see T. Wilson and E. Sani, Le maioliche rinascimentali nelle collezioni della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia, 2006, pp. 128-129. In 1565 Orazio set up his own workshop, independent from his father’s. For a large ormolu-mounted maiolica jar inscribed FATE.IN BOTEGA.DE ORATIO.FONTANA (made in the workshop of Orazio Fontana), see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A catalogue of the British Museum collection, London, 2009, pp. 333-337, no. 197, where the authors note other pieces with similar inscriptions on p. 335 and on p. 336, note 14.
2. Orazio predeceased his father, and his workshop passed to his nephew Flaminio Fontana. By 1580 it seems Flaminio’s workshop ‘was being run by his collaborator and relative, Antonio Patanazzi’, cf. T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Catalogue of a Private Collection, Turin, 2018, p. 383.
3. T. Wilson, Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 300-303, no. 106.
4. T. Wilson, ibid., 2018, p. 388.