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拍品专文
The inscription translates as ‘Paris judges the three naked goddesses’.
The present lot may be part of the History of Troy Service which was based upon designs by the Mannerist painter Battista Franco. Vasari described how Guidubaldo II, Duke of Urbino, had employed Franco to produce a series of designs for maiolicari to use. It is not known exactly when Franco came to Urbino to work for the duke, but it is thought he worked intermittently for him between 1545 and 1551(1). Services decorated with his designs were sent to Emperor Charles V and Cardinal Farnese.
Franco produced designs illustrating various subjects, but the largest number to survive are for a History of Troy Service. In their article on Franco’s designs for maiolica, Timothy Clifford and John Mallet do not record a Judgment of Paris piece in the known Trojan War Series, but the inclusion of such a scene would be logical, as according to legend, Paris’s decision to award the golden apple to Venus started in motion the series of events that culminated in the Trojan War(2).
Franco’s drawings remained in use in local maiolica workshops with varying results over time, but Clifford and Mallet identify the ‘first service’ as pieces of fine quality, their borders with putti and trophies, and their reverses with inscriptions in blue capital letters surrounded by two or three yellow concentric circles(3). Some of the episodes illustrated are fairly obscure, suggesting that the subjects and captions were probably devised by a humanist scholar working for the duke, who may have had a significant input as to how Franco should depict the episodes(4). Clifford and Mallet identify a plate painted with the Reception of Helen by King Priam(5) and a plate with Ascanius with a Flame round his head(6) as ‘first service’ pieces, both of which are very similar to the present lot. A Battista Franco drawing for the central composition of the present lot awaits discovery.
1. A plate by Francesco Durantino, clearly after a design by Franco, is dated 1545 (sold by Christie’s, London, on 5 July 2012, lot 84, and by Sotheby’s in the Hôtel Lambert sale, Paris, 11 October 2022, lot 3). See Timothy Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, ‘Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica’, Burlington Magazine, no. 879, June 1976, pp. 391-392. See also Johanna Lessmann, ‘Battista Franco Disegnatore di Maioliche’ in Faenza, no. 2, 1976, pp. 27-30.
2. In the story of The Judgment of Paris, Eris, the goddess of strife, threw down a golden apple inscribed ‘To the fairest’, for which Venus, Minerva and Juno competed. Jupiter declined to decide between the three goddesses, and ordered Mercury to bring them to Paris so that he could decide. The three each attempted to bribe Paris in order to win, and when Venus promised him the love of any woman he desired, mentioning Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, Paris awarded the apple to Venus. Paris’s subsequent abduction of Helen led the Greeks to launch an attack on Troy.
3. Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 395.
4. Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 395.
5. In the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (purchased from Cyril Humphris in 1973, inv. no. C.31-1973), illustrated by Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, fig. 47.
6. In the Musei Civici, Pesaro, see Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, fig. 73.
The present lot may be part of the History of Troy Service which was based upon designs by the Mannerist painter Battista Franco. Vasari described how Guidubaldo II, Duke of Urbino, had employed Franco to produce a series of designs for maiolicari to use. It is not known exactly when Franco came to Urbino to work for the duke, but it is thought he worked intermittently for him between 1545 and 1551(1). Services decorated with his designs were sent to Emperor Charles V and Cardinal Farnese.
Franco produced designs illustrating various subjects, but the largest number to survive are for a History of Troy Service. In their article on Franco’s designs for maiolica, Timothy Clifford and John Mallet do not record a Judgment of Paris piece in the known Trojan War Series, but the inclusion of such a scene would be logical, as according to legend, Paris’s decision to award the golden apple to Venus started in motion the series of events that culminated in the Trojan War(2).
Franco’s drawings remained in use in local maiolica workshops with varying results over time, but Clifford and Mallet identify the ‘first service’ as pieces of fine quality, their borders with putti and trophies, and their reverses with inscriptions in blue capital letters surrounded by two or three yellow concentric circles(3). Some of the episodes illustrated are fairly obscure, suggesting that the subjects and captions were probably devised by a humanist scholar working for the duke, who may have had a significant input as to how Franco should depict the episodes(4). Clifford and Mallet identify a plate painted with the Reception of Helen by King Priam(5) and a plate with Ascanius with a Flame round his head(6) as ‘first service’ pieces, both of which are very similar to the present lot. A Battista Franco drawing for the central composition of the present lot awaits discovery.
1. A plate by Francesco Durantino, clearly after a design by Franco, is dated 1545 (sold by Christie’s, London, on 5 July 2012, lot 84, and by Sotheby’s in the Hôtel Lambert sale, Paris, 11 October 2022, lot 3). See Timothy Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, ‘Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica’, Burlington Magazine, no. 879, June 1976, pp. 391-392. See also Johanna Lessmann, ‘Battista Franco Disegnatore di Maioliche’ in Faenza, no. 2, 1976, pp. 27-30.
2. In the story of The Judgment of Paris, Eris, the goddess of strife, threw down a golden apple inscribed ‘To the fairest’, for which Venus, Minerva and Juno competed. Jupiter declined to decide between the three goddesses, and ordered Mercury to bring them to Paris so that he could decide. The three each attempted to bribe Paris in order to win, and when Venus promised him the love of any woman he desired, mentioning Helen, the wife of King Menelaus, Paris awarded the apple to Venus. Paris’s subsequent abduction of Helen led the Greeks to launch an attack on Troy.
3. Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 395.
4. Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 395.
5. In the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (purchased from Cyril Humphris in 1973, inv. no. C.31-1973), illustrated by Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, fig. 47.
6. In the Musei Civici, Pesaro, see Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, fig. 73.