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Lot Essay
The scene on this crespina is derived from a lost drawing of 'Caesar riding in Triumph with bound prisoners' attributed by Sir Timothy Clifford to Taddeo Zuccaro.1 Four copies of the lost drawing survive.2 Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi illustrate the coppa in the Museo del Pesaro with a similar scene which they attribute to Antonio Patanazzi.3 Other pieces with a similar scene include a dish in the Bargello, Florence,4 a piece in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,5 and the same scene appears on a dish recently acquired by the British Museum, attributed to Lyon or Nevers, circa 1600-30.6
1. The drawing was part of a group of drawings commissioned by Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, for an elaborate maiolica service which was given to the King of Spain. The whereabouts of the 'Spanish Service' is unknown, but it is recorded as having been completed by 1562. For a discussion of the Zuccaro brothers and how their drawings were used directly by maiolica painters, and for illustrations of the drawings, see J.A. Gere, 'Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica', Burlington Magazine, July 1963, No. 105, pp. 306-315, and Clifford, 'Some unpublished drawings for maiolica and Federigo Zuccaro's role in the Spanish Service', in T. Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery, Papers written in association with a colloquium at the British Museum, London, 1991, pp. 166-175, and Wendy M. Watson, 'Taddeo Zuccaro's earliest drawings for maiolica', in T. Wilson (ed.), ibid., pp. 176-181.
2. One of the copies, in the Uffizi (12264F) is illustrated by Clifford, ibid, p. 175, fig. 11 and p. 171, no. 19.
3. Fiocco and Gherardi, 'Alla Ricera di Antonio Patanazzi', Faenza, no. 1-6, 2009, p. 68 and fig. 6.
4. See Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, fratelli pittori del Cinquecento, Rome, 1998, Vol. I, p. 85.
5. J. Poole, op. cit., 1995, p. 381, fig. 42.
6. See D. Thornton and T. Wilson, op. cit., 2009, Vol. II, p. 707, no. RA1.
1. The drawing was part of a group of drawings commissioned by Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, for an elaborate maiolica service which was given to the King of Spain. The whereabouts of the 'Spanish Service' is unknown, but it is recorded as having been completed by 1562. For a discussion of the Zuccaro brothers and how their drawings were used directly by maiolica painters, and for illustrations of the drawings, see J.A. Gere, 'Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica', Burlington Magazine, July 1963, No. 105, pp. 306-315, and Clifford, 'Some unpublished drawings for maiolica and Federigo Zuccaro's role in the Spanish Service', in T. Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery, Papers written in association with a colloquium at the British Museum, London, 1991, pp. 166-175, and Wendy M. Watson, 'Taddeo Zuccaro's earliest drawings for maiolica', in T. Wilson (ed.), ibid., pp. 176-181.
2. One of the copies, in the Uffizi (12264F) is illustrated by Clifford, ibid, p. 175, fig. 11 and p. 171, no. 19.
3. Fiocco and Gherardi, 'Alla Ricera di Antonio Patanazzi', Faenza, no. 1-6, 2009, p. 68 and fig. 6.
4. See Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, fratelli pittori del Cinquecento, Rome, 1998, Vol. I, p. 85.
5. J. Poole, op. cit., 1995, p. 381, fig. 42.
6. See D. Thornton and T. Wilson, op. cit., 2009, Vol. II, p. 707, no. RA1.