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拍品专文
It is unclear for which member of the distinguished Morelli family this charger was made, although Giovanni di Martolomeo Morelli is one possibility, as Hispano-Moresque wares were recorded in a 1431 inventory of his possessions(1). Stylistically it may slightly pre-date the service of circa 1450-75 which is decorated with concentric registers of lustred ivy leaves around the central arms, of which a number of examples have survived(2). Morello Morelli was in Valencia in 1443, where he was employed by Niccolò Strozzi (whose family also commissioned Hispano-Moresque, an example of which is in this sale), and Morello and Girolamo were the two most prominent ‘public’ members of the family in the second half of the 15th century.
The Morelli family possessed houses and palaces in the Santa Croce district of Florence, and members of the family held the post of Gonfaloniere eight times, and the post of Prior of Justice forty times.
The Morelli arms with ‘two lion’s jambs crossed in saltire, in chief a chess rook or, upon a field of gules’ is incorrectly colored. The field, or ground color, should be gules (red), but red was a color which was not available to the Valencian potters at this time, so the painter used what was available, coloring it indigo (a mixture of cobalt blue and manganese).
1. Noted by Marco Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, p. 203.
2. The Victoria & Albert Museum example is illustrated by Anthony Ray, Spanish Pottery 1248-1898, London, 2000, p. 86, no. 185, and Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, pl. 97. Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, illustrates the charger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, pl. 98, a plate in the same museum, pl. 99, a dish with a recessed center from the Beit Collection, pl. 100 and a charger in the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, pl. 101.
The Morelli family possessed houses and palaces in the Santa Croce district of Florence, and members of the family held the post of Gonfaloniere eight times, and the post of Prior of Justice forty times.
The Morelli arms with ‘two lion’s jambs crossed in saltire, in chief a chess rook or, upon a field of gules’ is incorrectly colored. The field, or ground color, should be gules (red), but red was a color which was not available to the Valencian potters at this time, so the painter used what was available, coloring it indigo (a mixture of cobalt blue and manganese).
1. Noted by Marco Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, p. 203.
2. The Victoria & Albert Museum example is illustrated by Anthony Ray, Spanish Pottery 1248-1898, London, 2000, p. 86, no. 185, and Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, pl. 97. Spallanzani, ibid., 2006, illustrates the charger in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, pl. 98, a plate in the same museum, pl. 99, a dish with a recessed center from the Beit Collection, pl. 100 and a charger in the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, pl. 101.