CIRCA 1580, PROBABLY PATANAZZI WORKSHOP

The subject of this plate, depicting an episode from Caesar’s campaigns, was most probably derived from a drawing by Taddeo or Federigo Zucarro. The Zuccaro brothers were commissioned by the Duke of Urbino to submit designs for ‘The Spanish Service’, an important diplomatic gift to the King of Spain which was completed by 1562.¹ The service is recorded as being decorated with scenes from the life of Julius Caesar, and it was probably made by the Fontana workshop, the dominant workshop in Urbino at the time. After the completion of the service the imagery derived from Zuccaro's drawings continued to be used, and presumably passed into the hands of the Patanazzi workshop, who were connected to the Fontana by marriage, and who continued their business. If the subject of this plate was derived from a Zuccaro drawing, the drawing appears to have been lost, or has yet to come to light. For an Urbino plate of circa 1600 decorated with a scene taken from a drawing attributed to Federico Zuccaro, see Johanna Lessmann, Italienische Majolika, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick, Catalogue, Brunswick, 1979, p. 324, no. 450.

1. For Zuccaro drawings and a discussion of the 'Spanish Service', see J.A. Gere, 'Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica', Burlington Magazine No. 105, 1963, pp. 306-315. Also see Timothy Clifford 'Some unpublished drawings for maiolica and Federigo Zuccaro's role in the Spanish Service', in T. Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery, Papers written in association with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. 166-176.