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Lot Essay
The principal scene is derived from Gian Giacomo Caraglio's engraving 'The Marriage of The Virgin' of circa 1526 after the drawing by Parmigianino.1 It is intriguing that Xanto should have included two contemporary figures in the scene showing the marriage of Darius, the King of Persia (Darius was famously defeated and captured by Alexander The Great along with his wife and two daughters). The same two figures (in contemporary dress) appear on a footed dish (signed X and dated 1540) sold in these Rooms on 26th October 1959, lot 65, and again on 20th November 1967, lot 120. The central scene on the dish is similar to this plaque, but the flanking figures (in contemporary dress) appear in reverse from how they appear on the present plaque. The flanking figure on the right-hand side of this plaque bears a similarity to a figure in Giovanni Battista d'Angeli's engraving 'The Corrupt Judge' (see Bartsch, Vol. 32, p. 308, 35-I (197). Caraglio's wedding scene appears in full (with all the figures found on the print) on a plaque formerly in the Whitney Warren Collection, New York, sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1943, lot 531 (and formerly in the Professor Achille de Clemente Collection, New York, 1931).
The present plaque appears to be from an unknown series; it does not appear to be from the series of at least 39 plaques decorated with the History of Persia, some of which are dated 1536.2 Some of the Persian Series plaques are clearly by Xanto's hand but are unsigned, others are signed and others, although stylistically close, are clearly by another hand, and one of the plaques bears a '·Lu: ur:' signature.3 Two other plaques in the series were sold by Sotheby's, London, on 7th December 2010, lot 2 (by the 'Lu ur' painter) and lot 4 (by Xanto).
Another series of four plaques, depicting scenes from the Trojan War, also appears to have been a collaboration between Xanto and another painter, perhaps the 'Lu Ur' painter, see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, p. 267). It was initially thought that this group were painted slightly earlier in the 1530s, but it has been suggested by J. Mallet that they could date from a similar time. Johanna Lessmann has suggested that four other plaques in the Anton-Ulrich Museum, Brunswick, painted in the circle of Nicola da Urbino, could be part of the same series, and that the work was distributed among different painters in a single workshop or carried out by two workshops, see J. Lessmann, 'Istoriato-painting on panels in the workshop of Nicola da Urbino', T. Wilson, ed., Italian Renaissance Pottery, London, 1991, pp. 25-31, and J. Lessmann, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig, Italienische Majolika, Katalog der Sammlung, Brunswick, 1979, pp. 164-166.
1. Popham, 1971, Vol. 1, p. 205; Vol. 2, pl. 141, no. 692.
2. See Johanna Lessmann, Ibid., 2004, pp. 61-85, for a detailed discussion and listing of the series.
3. It has been suggested that the author of the '·Lu: ur:' signature on the Sotheby's plaque could have been Luca da Urbino.
The present plaque appears to be from an unknown series; it does not appear to be from the series of at least 39 plaques decorated with the History of Persia, some of which are dated 1536.
Another series of four plaques, depicting scenes from the Trojan War, also appears to have been a collaboration between Xanto and another painter, perhaps the 'Lu Ur' painter, see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, p. 267). It was initially thought that this group were painted slightly earlier in the 1530s, but it has been suggested by J. Mallet that they could date from a similar time. Johanna Lessmann has suggested that four other plaques in the Anton-Ulrich Museum, Brunswick, painted in the circle of Nicola da Urbino, could be part of the same series, and that the work was distributed among different painters in a single workshop or carried out by two workshops, see J. Lessmann, 'Istoriato-painting on panels in the workshop of Nicola da Urbino', T. Wilson, ed., Italian Renaissance Pottery, London, 1991, pp. 25-31, and J. Lessmann, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig, Italienische Majolika, Katalog der Sammlung, Brunswick, 1979, pp. 164-166.
1. Popham, 1971, Vol. 1, p. 205; Vol. 2, pl. 141, no. 692.
2. See Johanna Lessmann, Ibid., 2004, pp. 61-85, for a detailed discussion and listing of the series.
3. It has been suggested that the author of the '·Lu: ur:' signature on the Sotheby's plaque could have been Luca da Urbino.