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Lot Essay
The scene with The Drunkenness of Noah derives from a woodcut illustration by Sebald Beham in the Biblicae Historiae, which was published in Frankfurt in 1533. The scene, from Genesis, Chapter 9, verses 20-27, depicts Noah becoming drunk on wine from the vineyard he planted, and his three sons discovering his naked body as he sleeps in his tent. A number of slightly earlier maiolica pieces which have been attributed to the Fontana workshop were also derived from Beham’s wooducts in this publication, so it appears that the prints remained in use in the workshop for some time(1). The scene with Lot and his daughters is taken from another Sebald Beham woodcut illustration in the same book. The grotesques are adapted from designs by the French architect and designer Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau, which were published in two editions of 1550 and 1562. These prints were widely circulated and were in use by the Fontana workshop by 1563(2).
Although the upper part of the screw-thread on the present flask is replaced, the lower part remains. In his treatise on the making of maiolica written in about 1557, Cipriano Piccolpasso spent some time discussing and marveling at the innovative technique of producing a ‘screw mouth in the manner of silver flasks’, which he called ‘ingenious’(3).
1. For a pilgrim-flask painted entirely with an istoriato scene featuring the Drunkenness of Noah derived from the same print, see Timothy Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture, the MAK Maiolica Collection in its wider context, The MAK, Vienna, April – August Exhibition Catalogue, Stuttgart, 2022, p. 35, no. 2. For a pair of pilgrim-flasks (from an armorial service) in the Gillet Collection, Lyon, with scenes derived from other woodcuts in the book, see Carola Fiocco, Gabriella Gherardi and Liliane Sfeir-Fakhri, Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 262-265, nos. 174 and 175.
2. See Christopher Poke, ‘Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau’s “Petites Grotesques” as a source for Urbino maiolica decoration’ in Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXLIII, no. 1179, June 2001, pp. 332-344 for a discussion of this and prints which correspond to the present lot. A dish of 1563 using Du Cerceau’s designs is cited p. 334 and p. 343, no. 21.
3. Cipriano Piccolpasso, The Three Books of the Potter’s Art, edited by Ronald Lightbown and Alan Caiger-Smith, Vendin-le-Vieil, 2007, pp. 51-52.
Although the upper part of the screw-thread on the present flask is replaced, the lower part remains. In his treatise on the making of maiolica written in about 1557, Cipriano Piccolpasso spent some time discussing and marveling at the innovative technique of producing a ‘screw mouth in the manner of silver flasks’, which he called ‘ingenious’(3).
1. For a pilgrim-flask painted entirely with an istoriato scene featuring the Drunkenness of Noah derived from the same print, see Timothy Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture, the MAK Maiolica Collection in its wider context, The MAK, Vienna, April – August Exhibition Catalogue, Stuttgart, 2022, p. 35, no. 2. For a pair of pilgrim-flasks (from an armorial service) in the Gillet Collection, Lyon, with scenes derived from other woodcuts in the book, see Carola Fiocco, Gabriella Gherardi and Liliane Sfeir-Fakhri, Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 262-265, nos. 174 and 175.
2. See Christopher Poke, ‘Jacques Androuet I Ducerceau’s “Petites Grotesques” as a source for Urbino maiolica decoration’ in Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXLIII, no. 1179, June 2001, pp. 332-344 for a discussion of this and prints which correspond to the present lot. A dish of 1563 using Du Cerceau’s designs is cited p. 334 and p. 343, no. 21.
3. Cipriano Piccolpasso, The Three Books of the Potter’s Art, edited by Ronald Lightbown and Alan Caiger-Smith, Vendin-le-Vieil, 2007, pp. 51-52.