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Lot Essay
The arms (per fesse gules and argent a porcupine in chief or) are for the Martini-Ricci family of Siena. Three other tondini from this service have survived, one at Sèvres, Cité de la céramique(1) one in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London(2) and one in a private collection(3). The painter of the present lot is not the same as the painter of the other three tondini in the service. As the labor for the service was clearly divided among more than one painter, this suggests that the four tondini once formed part of a relatively large service.
The present lot was painted by the author of a group of pieces whose identity has caused considerable debate among scholars. The painter was the author of the plate painted with The Three Graces in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is lustred with the date 1525 and bears the mark of Maestro Giorgio Andreoli of Gubbio(4). Some believe the author of this piece is an anonymous painter, whereas the scholar Timothy Wilson hypothesized painter is Luca Baldi(5), who was recorded as having worked for Maestro Giorgio between 1525 and 1527, and the scholar John Mallet has argued that the painter is Francesco Xanto Avelli, one of the most influential personalities in 16th century Italian maiolica.
While he was working in Urbino, Xanto consistently signed works between 1530 and 1542, but there has been considerable debate about what can be firmly attributed to him before 1530. Mallet attributed a group of works to Xanto which were made(6) and lustred at Gubbio between 1524 and 1525, as well as an un-lustred tondino inscribed 1522 OMNIA VINCIT which was made at an unknown center(7), and published the group as being by Xanto in his seminal 2007 Wallace Collection exhibition(8).
There is still uncertainty and debate around these early istoriato pieces. There are strong similarities in style between the OMNIA VINCIT piece and the present lot, and the unusual and distinctive rocks in the landscape, which are painted almost with rings like those of a cut tree-trunk, do not appear in the prints from which the painter of the maiolica pieces was working. Among the group of Gubbio pieces which Mallet attributed to Xanto (which bear dates 1524 or 1525), the ‘S Service’ pieces are particularly close in style to the present lot(9).
The istoriato scene is probably after the engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi of circa 1508-1510 rather than the slightly earlier engraving by the Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden of circa 1505-08, which Raimondi copied. Raimondi copied the composition in reverse, omitting van Leyden’s monogram, and the figures on the present lot follow the configuration of the Raimondi print. Although the painter probably used the Raimondi print, this is far from certain as the imagery adapted from prints was frequently reversed.
1. Inv. 21049, illustrated by Françoise Barbe et al., Majolique, La faïence italienne au temps des humanistes 1480-1530, Château d’Ecouen October 2011-February 2012 Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 2011, p. 139, Cat. no. 79.
2. Inv. 1788-1855, illustrated by Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, 1940, Vol. I, pp. 225-226, no. 671 and Vol. II, pl. 105.
3. This piece was formerly in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection and sold in his sale by Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on 4 May 1946, lot 80. It was also illustrated by Gaetano Ballardini, Corpus della Maiolica Italiana, 1933, Vol. I, no. 113, 110, 282R.
4. J.V.G. Mallet, Xanto, Pottery Painter, Poet, Man of the Renaissance, Wallace Collection January-April 2007 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, pp. 64-65, no. 9.
5. Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, p. 315.
6. This is confirmed by the painting in blue, which had to be applied and fired before lustre was added.
7. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. See J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, pp. 48-49, no. 1.
8. J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, nos. 4-11.
9. J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, nos. 7, 8, and also see the plate in National Gallery of Art, Washington (Inv. 1942.9.334), dated 1525, see J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, p. 32, figs. 20 and 21.
The present lot was painted by the author of a group of pieces whose identity has caused considerable debate among scholars. The painter was the author of the plate painted with The Three Graces in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is lustred with the date 1525 and bears the mark of Maestro Giorgio Andreoli of Gubbio(4). Some believe the author of this piece is an anonymous painter, whereas the scholar Timothy Wilson hypothesized painter is Luca Baldi(5), who was recorded as having worked for Maestro Giorgio between 1525 and 1527, and the scholar John Mallet has argued that the painter is Francesco Xanto Avelli, one of the most influential personalities in 16th century Italian maiolica.
While he was working in Urbino, Xanto consistently signed works between 1530 and 1542, but there has been considerable debate about what can be firmly attributed to him before 1530. Mallet attributed a group of works to Xanto which were made(6) and lustred at Gubbio between 1524 and 1525, as well as an un-lustred tondino inscribed 1522 OMNIA VINCIT which was made at an unknown center(7), and published the group as being by Xanto in his seminal 2007 Wallace Collection exhibition(8).
There is still uncertainty and debate around these early istoriato pieces. There are strong similarities in style between the OMNIA VINCIT piece and the present lot, and the unusual and distinctive rocks in the landscape, which are painted almost with rings like those of a cut tree-trunk, do not appear in the prints from which the painter of the maiolica pieces was working. Among the group of Gubbio pieces which Mallet attributed to Xanto (which bear dates 1524 or 1525), the ‘S Service’ pieces are particularly close in style to the present lot(9).
The istoriato scene is probably after the engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi of circa 1508-1510 rather than the slightly earlier engraving by the Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden of circa 1505-08, which Raimondi copied. Raimondi copied the composition in reverse, omitting van Leyden’s monogram, and the figures on the present lot follow the configuration of the Raimondi print. Although the painter probably used the Raimondi print, this is far from certain as the imagery adapted from prints was frequently reversed.
1. Inv. 21049, illustrated by Françoise Barbe et al., Majolique, La faïence italienne au temps des humanistes 1480-1530, Château d’Ecouen October 2011-February 2012 Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 2011, p. 139, Cat. no. 79.
2. Inv. 1788-1855, illustrated by Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, 1940, Vol. I, pp. 225-226, no. 671 and Vol. II, pl. 105.
3. This piece was formerly in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection and sold in his sale by Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on 4 May 1946, lot 80. It was also illustrated by Gaetano Ballardini, Corpus della Maiolica Italiana, 1933, Vol. I, no. 113, 110, 282R.
4. J.V.G. Mallet, Xanto, Pottery Painter, Poet, Man of the Renaissance, Wallace Collection January-April 2007 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, pp. 64-65, no. 9.
5. Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, p. 315.
6. This is confirmed by the painting in blue, which had to be applied and fired before lustre was added.
7. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. See J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, pp. 48-49, no. 1.
8. J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, nos. 4-11.
9. J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, nos. 7, 8, and also see the plate in National Gallery of Art, Washington (Inv. 1942.9.334), dated 1525, see J.V.G. Mallet, ibid., 2007, p. 32, figs. 20 and 21.