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拍品专文
The present unpublished plate is an exciting addition to the canon of works by Francesco Xanto Avelli. Including the present lot, five plates painted by Xanto illustrating the Sword of Damocles story are known to have survived; a plate dated 1534 in a private collection(1), a plate dated 1536 in Lyon(2), a plate dated 1539 sold by Christie’s, New York(3) and a plate dated 1540 in Prague(4).
The decoration of this plate illustrates the story of Damocles, an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II, the tyrannical ruler of Syracuse in 4th century B.C. Sicily. Damocles declared the king to be very fortunate to have such power and magnificence, and in response, the king suggested that they should exchange places for one day. Once seated on the throne, Damocles realized that the king had arranged for a sword to be suspended from a single hair of a horse's tail above it, demonstrating the precarious nature of a ruler’s position. Damocles finally begged Dionysius to allow him to depart, no longer wanting to be in the 'fortunate' position of the king.
Xanto adapted figures from two prints as the basis for the decoration of this plate. The seated figure of Dionysus is taken from Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee. The two servants behind the table are derived from one of the scenes in Quos Ego, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi in 1516 after designs by Raphael depicting scenes from Virgil(5). The figure of Dionysius may be based on the engraving The Father of Psyche Consulting the Oracle by Agostino Veneziano after Michiel Coxie (and reversed)(6).
1. Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, pp. 246-247, no. 107, and E.P. Sani, ‘List of works by or attributable to Francesco Xanto Avelli’ in J.V.G. Mallet, Xanto, Pottery Painter, Poet, Man of the Renaissance, Wallace Collection January-April 2007 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, p.
196, no. 233 (Sold at Christie’s, London, 24 May 2011, lot 24, and Sotheby’s, London, 16 March 1976, lot 25).
2. Carola Fiocco, et al., Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 232-233, no. 156, and E.P. Sani, ibid., 2007, no. 310.
3. Formerly in the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen and restituted to the heirs of Eugen Gutmann or Fritz Gutmann (1886-1944), sold by Christie’s, New York, 25 January 2023, lot 116.
4. Umeleckoprůmyslové Museum (11.571). Petr Přibyl (ed.), Terra [cotta]. Plastika a majolika italské renesance / Sculpture and Majolica of Italian Renaissance, Národní Galerie, Prague 2006, no. 16; Jirina Vydrová, Italská Majoliká, Umeleckoprůmyslové Muzeum v Praze, Prague, 1973, no. 50, and E.P. Sani, ibid., 2007, no. 379.
5. The portion Xanto used was the bottom right-hand corner, which depicts Dido Entertaining Aeneas, and these figures have not been reversed.
6. Konrad Oberhuber (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century, New York, 1978, Vol. 26 (formerly Vol. 14, Part 1), p. 51. The transposition is not exact. As the figure of Dionysius is the same on most of Xanto’s depictions of this scene (except for the Gutmann plate cited above in Note 3), if this print was the source that Xanto adapted for Dionysius, then as the transposition from the print is not exact, it suggests that Xanto may have made a drawing with a slightly adapted version of the figure which he retained for repeated use.
The decoration of this plate illustrates the story of Damocles, an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II, the tyrannical ruler of Syracuse in 4th century B.C. Sicily. Damocles declared the king to be very fortunate to have such power and magnificence, and in response, the king suggested that they should exchange places for one day. Once seated on the throne, Damocles realized that the king had arranged for a sword to be suspended from a single hair of a horse's tail above it, demonstrating the precarious nature of a ruler’s position. Damocles finally begged Dionysius to allow him to depart, no longer wanting to be in the 'fortunate' position of the king.
Xanto adapted figures from two prints as the basis for the decoration of this plate. The seated figure of Dionysus is taken from Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee. The two servants behind the table are derived from one of the scenes in Quos Ego, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi in 1516 after designs by Raphael depicting scenes from Virgil(5). The figure of Dionysius may be based on the engraving The Father of Psyche Consulting the Oracle by Agostino Veneziano after Michiel Coxie (and reversed)(6).
1. Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, pp. 246-247, no. 107, and E.P. Sani, ‘List of works by or attributable to Francesco Xanto Avelli’ in J.V.G. Mallet, Xanto, Pottery Painter, Poet, Man of the Renaissance, Wallace Collection January-April 2007 Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2007, p.
196, no. 233 (Sold at Christie’s, London, 24 May 2011, lot 24, and Sotheby’s, London, 16 March 1976, lot 25).
2. Carola Fiocco, et al., Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 232-233, no. 156, and E.P. Sani, ibid., 2007, no. 310.
3. Formerly in the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen and restituted to the heirs of Eugen Gutmann or Fritz Gutmann (1886-1944), sold by Christie’s, New York, 25 January 2023, lot 116.
4. Umeleckoprůmyslové Museum (11.571). Petr Přibyl (ed.), Terra [cotta]. Plastika a majolika italské renesance / Sculpture and Majolica of Italian Renaissance, Národní Galerie, Prague 2006, no. 16; Jirina Vydrová, Italská Majoliká, Umeleckoprůmyslové Muzeum v Praze, Prague, 1973, no. 50, and E.P. Sani, ibid., 2007, no. 379.
5. The portion Xanto used was the bottom right-hand corner, which depicts Dido Entertaining Aeneas, and these figures have not been reversed.
6. Konrad Oberhuber (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, Italian Masters of the Sixteenth Century, New York, 1978, Vol. 26 (formerly Vol. 14, Part 1), p. 51. The transposition is not exact. As the figure of Dionysius is the same on most of Xanto’s depictions of this scene (except for the Gutmann plate cited above in Note 3), if this print was the source that Xanto adapted for Dionysius, then as the transposition from the print is not exact, it suggests that Xanto may have made a drawing with a slightly adapted version of the figure which he retained for repeated use.