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Lot Essay
The impaled arms are those of the prominent Sienese families Piccolomini at left and Spannocchi at right(1). The present basin is the stand for an ewer, as the central raised boss would have served as a base for the foot of the ewer to fit. The ewer may have contained rosewater for rinsing hands before a banquet.
This stand was made for the prominent Sienese banker, Ambrogio di Nanni Spannocchi, or for one of his sons Antonio or Giulio. The combination of the Piccolomini and Spannocchi arms refers to the relationship between Pope Pius II and Ambrogio Spannocchi, his trusted banker who had been granted the right to incorporate the Piccolomini arms with his own(2). Ambrogio was spectacularly rich, earning him the epithet ‘the Magnificent’. His Roman bank held branches in Siena, Naples and Valencia, and after his death in 1478, the family’s banking activities were continued by his widow and two sons(3).
This basin or ewer-stand is part of a set of lustred Hispano-Moresque wares bearing the impaled Piccolomini and Spannocchi arms. Another ewer-stand (with obscured arms due to running in the firing) is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford(4), a third piece is in the British Museum(5) and a fourth piece is in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg(6). Spannocchi’s bank in Valencia would have provided the impetus and connections for such a commission, and his connections with Florence may also have contributed to the commission, as from the 14th century many Florentine families had ordered fine lustred Hispano-Moresque wares with their coats of arms via banking connections with Spain, a practice which waned by the beginning of the 16th century (as by that time Italian maiolica was in the ascendence, replacing Hispano-Moresque imports). Commissions from Sienese families for lustred Hispano-Moresque wares were secondary in number to those placed by Florentine families, and the Spannocchi set is the largest of the Sienese commissions.
Pope Pius II died in 1464, but this does not point to a terminus ante quem of 1464 for this stand as Ambrogio continued to use the impaled Piccolomini Spannocchi arms long after Pius II’s death. The Piccolomini arms appears on both the exterior and interior of the huge and spectacular palazzo that Ambrogio constructed in the 1470s in a central location on Siena’s main street, the Strada Romana(7). Ambrogio was excluded from holding political power in Siena as he was the leading member of the Dodici(8), and he therefore devoted his time to financial interests and patronage, spending much of his career in Rome as the pope’s banker and in Naples as banker to the King of Naples. This exclusion gave him an international outlook, and prompted him to promote Renaissance artists and architects from outside of the city, particularly from Florence and Naples, which broke from the city’s stylistic traditions and emphasized his international connections. A fine lustred Hispano-Moresque stand such as the present lot would have been the kind of object which he would have commissioned for his new palazzo. In August 1475 Cardinal Giacomo Ammannati Piccolomini wrote to Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga that ‘Its outer appearance is that of a royal palace; the interior is richly appointed and so spacious that it is in no way different from a royal palace’(9). It is possible that the present stand was commissioned by Ambrogio at the same time as he was furnishing his new palazzo, or it may have been commissioned after his death in 1478 by one of his sons.
Stylistically, the stand’s decoration dates to the last three decades of the 15th century, making it equally probable that it may have been commissioned by Antonio Spannocchi or his younger brother Giulio. The brothers continued to use the impaled Piccolomini Spannocchi arms after their father’s death, and the trade barrier introduced in 1477, which placed exorbitantly high taxes on pottery imported to Siena from other Italian centers and beyond, did not apply to Hispano-Moresque wares originating in Spain10. Antonio and Giulio’s double wedding in Siena between 17th and 19th January 1494 was styled as a spectacular imperial event, and it is possible that the present lot was specifically made for the occasion.
Antonio married Alessandra Placidi, daughter of Neri Placidi, a prominent member of the Noveschi and councilor to the King of Naples(11), and Giulio married Giovanna Mellini, from an important Roman noble mercantile family. The wedding parade wove through the streets of the city to the Palazzo Spannocchi, where a ‘magnificent arch “such as those made by the ancient Romans” had been erected, proudly displaying the arms of the couple. There followed a sumptuous reception: the palace was decked out in silks, silverware valued at 60,000 scudi was used at the banquet, and hare, pheasant, peacock and other delicacies were served to wedding guests including such dignitaries as the Duke of Saxony and Jacopo Appiano, Lord of Piombino, as well as the Sienese elite’(12). Such a spectacular event would have provided the impetus for the commission of a large armorial Hispano-Moresque stand imported from Spain.
1. The pairings of ears of corn (pannocchi) on the Spannocchi arms are correctly colored gold with lustre, but the field is incorrectly tinctured as it should be gules. Red, however, was a color not yet available to the Valencian potters at this time, and so the painter used what was available, coloring it manganese to distinguish it from the dark-blue cross of the Piccolomini arms.
2. In the early 1450s Ambrogio Spannocchi was involved in financing the papal fleet constructed for Pope Calixtus III. When Enea Bartolomeo Piccolomini (Pius II), also from Siena, became Pope in 1458, Spannocchi was appointed joint Depositario of the papal Camera; see Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ‘Ambrogio Spannocchi’s “Bella Casa”, Creating Site and Setting in Quattrocento Sienese Architecture’ in A. Lawrence Jenkins (ed.), Renaissance Siena: Art in Context, 2005, p. 144 and p. 154, note 72.
3. Luke Syson et al., Renaissance Siena, Art for a City, National Gallery, London October 2007 – January 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, p. 226. In note 3, Syson references J.M. Cruselles Gómez and D. Igual Luis, El duc de Borja a Gandia. Els comptes de la banca Spannocchi (1488-1496), Gandia, 2003, for Spannocchi’s Valencia bank.
4. See Timothy Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017, pp. 426-427, no. 226.
5. Timothy Wilson, Patricia Collins and Hugo Blake, Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance, British Museum Exhibition Catalogue, 1987, no. 17, and Manuel González Martí, Cerámica del Levante Español, Siglos Medievales, Barcelona, 1944, Vol. I (Loza), p. 508.
6. Alfred N. Kube, Ispano-mavritanskaya keramika, Moscow and Leningrad, 1940, fig. XIV.
7. He also incorporated his own portrait among the busts of Roman emperors which prominently adorn the Palazzo’s frieze. The palazzo was designed by Giuliano da Maiano, who had carried out numerous important commissions in Naples with his brother Benedetto for the King and other prominent members of Neapolitan society. See Fabrizio Nevola, ‘Civic Identity and Private Patrons in Renaissance Siena’, in Syson et al., ibid., 2007, p. 24.
8. Siena was governed as a ‘popular’ Comune, and from 1280 the nobility were mostly excluded from participating in government. At the beginning of the 15th century the Dodici (Twelve), the party that had governed between 1355 and 1385 were accused of colluding with both the Gentiluomini (the nobility) and with Florence, so they were expelled, and their descendants were also banned from government. Cf. Luke Syson, ‘Stylistic Choices’ in Syson et al., ibid., 2007, p. 47. For the circumstances behind the acquisition of the land for the palazzo, see Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ibid., 2005, pp. 139-154.
9. Fabrizio Nevola, ibid., 2007, p. 24 and p. 29, note 56.
10. Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ibid., 2005, p. 143 and note 12.
11. The Noveschi or the IX were a group of merchants and bankers who governed Siena from 1287 to 1355, before the Dodici took over.
12. Fabrizio Nevola, ibid., 2007, p. 25 and p. 29, note 59.
This stand was made for the prominent Sienese banker, Ambrogio di Nanni Spannocchi, or for one of his sons Antonio or Giulio. The combination of the Piccolomini and Spannocchi arms refers to the relationship between Pope Pius II and Ambrogio Spannocchi, his trusted banker who had been granted the right to incorporate the Piccolomini arms with his own(2). Ambrogio was spectacularly rich, earning him the epithet ‘the Magnificent’. His Roman bank held branches in Siena, Naples and Valencia, and after his death in 1478, the family’s banking activities were continued by his widow and two sons(3).
This basin or ewer-stand is part of a set of lustred Hispano-Moresque wares bearing the impaled Piccolomini and Spannocchi arms. Another ewer-stand (with obscured arms due to running in the firing) is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford(4), a third piece is in the British Museum(5) and a fourth piece is in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg(6). Spannocchi’s bank in Valencia would have provided the impetus and connections for such a commission, and his connections with Florence may also have contributed to the commission, as from the 14th century many Florentine families had ordered fine lustred Hispano-Moresque wares with their coats of arms via banking connections with Spain, a practice which waned by the beginning of the 16th century (as by that time Italian maiolica was in the ascendence, replacing Hispano-Moresque imports). Commissions from Sienese families for lustred Hispano-Moresque wares were secondary in number to those placed by Florentine families, and the Spannocchi set is the largest of the Sienese commissions.
Pope Pius II died in 1464, but this does not point to a terminus ante quem of 1464 for this stand as Ambrogio continued to use the impaled Piccolomini Spannocchi arms long after Pius II’s death. The Piccolomini arms appears on both the exterior and interior of the huge and spectacular palazzo that Ambrogio constructed in the 1470s in a central location on Siena’s main street, the Strada Romana(7). Ambrogio was excluded from holding political power in Siena as he was the leading member of the Dodici(8), and he therefore devoted his time to financial interests and patronage, spending much of his career in Rome as the pope’s banker and in Naples as banker to the King of Naples. This exclusion gave him an international outlook, and prompted him to promote Renaissance artists and architects from outside of the city, particularly from Florence and Naples, which broke from the city’s stylistic traditions and emphasized his international connections. A fine lustred Hispano-Moresque stand such as the present lot would have been the kind of object which he would have commissioned for his new palazzo. In August 1475 Cardinal Giacomo Ammannati Piccolomini wrote to Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga that ‘Its outer appearance is that of a royal palace; the interior is richly appointed and so spacious that it is in no way different from a royal palace’(9). It is possible that the present stand was commissioned by Ambrogio at the same time as he was furnishing his new palazzo, or it may have been commissioned after his death in 1478 by one of his sons.
Stylistically, the stand’s decoration dates to the last three decades of the 15th century, making it equally probable that it may have been commissioned by Antonio Spannocchi or his younger brother Giulio. The brothers continued to use the impaled Piccolomini Spannocchi arms after their father’s death, and the trade barrier introduced in 1477, which placed exorbitantly high taxes on pottery imported to Siena from other Italian centers and beyond, did not apply to Hispano-Moresque wares originating in Spain10. Antonio and Giulio’s double wedding in Siena between 17th and 19th January 1494 was styled as a spectacular imperial event, and it is possible that the present lot was specifically made for the occasion.
Antonio married Alessandra Placidi, daughter of Neri Placidi, a prominent member of the Noveschi and councilor to the King of Naples(11), and Giulio married Giovanna Mellini, from an important Roman noble mercantile family. The wedding parade wove through the streets of the city to the Palazzo Spannocchi, where a ‘magnificent arch “such as those made by the ancient Romans” had been erected, proudly displaying the arms of the couple. There followed a sumptuous reception: the palace was decked out in silks, silverware valued at 60,000 scudi was used at the banquet, and hare, pheasant, peacock and other delicacies were served to wedding guests including such dignitaries as the Duke of Saxony and Jacopo Appiano, Lord of Piombino, as well as the Sienese elite’(12). Such a spectacular event would have provided the impetus for the commission of a large armorial Hispano-Moresque stand imported from Spain.
1. The pairings of ears of corn (pannocchi) on the Spannocchi arms are correctly colored gold with lustre, but the field is incorrectly tinctured as it should be gules. Red, however, was a color not yet available to the Valencian potters at this time, and so the painter used what was available, coloring it manganese to distinguish it from the dark-blue cross of the Piccolomini arms.
2. In the early 1450s Ambrogio Spannocchi was involved in financing the papal fleet constructed for Pope Calixtus III. When Enea Bartolomeo Piccolomini (Pius II), also from Siena, became Pope in 1458, Spannocchi was appointed joint Depositario of the papal Camera; see Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ‘Ambrogio Spannocchi’s “Bella Casa”, Creating Site and Setting in Quattrocento Sienese Architecture’ in A. Lawrence Jenkins (ed.), Renaissance Siena: Art in Context, 2005, p. 144 and p. 154, note 72.
3. Luke Syson et al., Renaissance Siena, Art for a City, National Gallery, London October 2007 – January 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, p. 226. In note 3, Syson references J.M. Cruselles Gómez and D. Igual Luis, El duc de Borja a Gandia. Els comptes de la banca Spannocchi (1488-1496), Gandia, 2003, for Spannocchi’s Valencia bank.
4. See Timothy Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017, pp. 426-427, no. 226.
5. Timothy Wilson, Patricia Collins and Hugo Blake, Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance, British Museum Exhibition Catalogue, 1987, no. 17, and Manuel González Martí, Cerámica del Levante Español, Siglos Medievales, Barcelona, 1944, Vol. I (Loza), p. 508.
6. Alfred N. Kube, Ispano-mavritanskaya keramika, Moscow and Leningrad, 1940, fig. XIV.
7. He also incorporated his own portrait among the busts of Roman emperors which prominently adorn the Palazzo’s frieze. The palazzo was designed by Giuliano da Maiano, who had carried out numerous important commissions in Naples with his brother Benedetto for the King and other prominent members of Neapolitan society. See Fabrizio Nevola, ‘Civic Identity and Private Patrons in Renaissance Siena’, in Syson et al., ibid., 2007, p. 24.
8. Siena was governed as a ‘popular’ Comune, and from 1280 the nobility were mostly excluded from participating in government. At the beginning of the 15th century the Dodici (Twelve), the party that had governed between 1355 and 1385 were accused of colluding with both the Gentiluomini (the nobility) and with Florence, so they were expelled, and their descendants were also banned from government. Cf. Luke Syson, ‘Stylistic Choices’ in Syson et al., ibid., 2007, p. 47. For the circumstances behind the acquisition of the land for the palazzo, see Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ibid., 2005, pp. 139-154.
9. Fabrizio Nevola, ibid., 2007, p. 24 and p. 29, note 56.
10. Fabrizio J.D. Nevola, ibid., 2005, p. 143 and note 12.
11. The Noveschi or the IX were a group of merchants and bankers who governed Siena from 1287 to 1355, before the Dodici took over.
12. Fabrizio Nevola, ibid., 2007, p. 25 and p. 29, note 59.