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拍品专文
This charger illustrates the moment in the Trojan War in which Achilles changes his mind about fighting for the Greeks, taking up arms to avenge Patroclus, his much-loved squire who had been killed by the Trojans(1). The scene is almost certainly after a lost design by the artist Battista Franco. In about 1548 Franco provided a series of designs for a service decorated with episodes from The History of Troy(2). The borders of these designs are packed with putti and trophies divided by masks, a style which slightly pre-dates the border of the present lot. Franco’s designs continued to be re-used, and as other maiolica works with the same scene as this charger exist, including examples with borders populated by putti and trophies(3), they must all have been based upon a design by Franco.
The painter of the present lot appears to be the author of a large dish in the Metropolitan Museum, New York,(4) and the handwriting of the inscriptions to the reverse of the two dishes also appears to be by the same hand.
1. Achilles was so offended at his treatment by King Agamemnon that he refused to fight for the Greeks (Homer, Iliad, book XIX).
2. Timothy Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, ‘Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica’, The Burlington Magazine, no. 879, June 1976, p. 395.
3. A large dish in the British Museum bears the same scene. See Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 406, no. 11, and Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, pp. 392-394, no. 233, where other examples are cited.
4. Illustrated by Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 286-287, no. 102, which illustrates the related Franco design, and where other related pieces are listed.
The painter of the present lot appears to be the author of a large dish in the Metropolitan Museum, New York,(4) and the handwriting of the inscriptions to the reverse of the two dishes also appears to be by the same hand.
1. Achilles was so offended at his treatment by King Agamemnon that he refused to fight for the Greeks (Homer, Iliad, book XIX).
2. Timothy Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, ‘Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica’, The Burlington Magazine, no. 879, June 1976, p. 395.
3. A large dish in the British Museum bears the same scene. See Clifford and Mallet, ibid., 1976, p. 406, no. 11, and Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, pp. 392-394, no. 233, where other examples are cited.
4. Illustrated by Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 286-287, no. 102, which illustrates the related Franco design, and where other related pieces are listed.