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拍品专文
The arms on the rim of this plate were previously identified as those of the Becchi family of Florence, although it seems that this is not the case. The sinister (female) impalement of the shield is for Benti or Bentii of Forlì. Currently nothing is known about the circumstances surrounding the commission of this piece.
The present lot is very similar in style to a dish in the Taft Museum which is painted with Orpheus Lamenting the Death of Eurydice. The Taft dish has a border with grotesques of a type which are more typical of Faenza in the 1520s, but unusually, these are set against compartments of different colors. The anonymous author of the Taft Museum dish was dubbed the ‘Master of the Taft Orpheus’ by Jessie McNab(1). Independently, a plate at Marcigny of very similar style was attributed to the ‘Painter of the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ by Fiocco and Gherardi(2), who demonstrated that the painter worked at both Faenza and nearby Forlì. In her grouping of works by the ‘Master of the Taft Orpheus’, McNab included a plate at St. Petersburg and a dish in the Louvre, pieces which Fiocco and Gherardi included in their grouping for the ‘Painter of the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’(3). The two painters may be the same.
Although the figures on the present lot are very similar to those in the ‘Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ group, and other features are identical, such as the narrow, hatched bands edging the borders, or the stylized mountains, there are differences in the way the trees and foliage are painted, so it is not clear if the present lot is by a different, very similar, hand, or by the same painter. Two years after their article on the ‘Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ piece, Fiocco and Gherardi published another article where they argue that the Marcigny piece is by the painter of a dish in Bologna inscribed Pietro da Castel(4).
The yellow-ground border with grotesques is unusual for Faenza(5), and the type of grotesques are atypical for the city as well, as is the reverse. A plate dated 1540 which is attributed to Faenza and which has a similar yellow-ground border with very similar grotesques to the present lot is in the Gillet Collection in Lyon(6). Although the palette is of a later date, the Gillet piece may be related to the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny / Petrus group.
The outer rim of the plate is lacking, most likely because it was cut down to enable it to fit into a frame, possibly at some point between the 17th century and early 19th century. Istoriato maiolica plates and bowls were often treated as pictures, and it was thought that they were painted by well-known Renaissance artists such as Raphael (which gave rise to the term ‘Raphaelware’)(7).
1. Jessie McNab in E.J. Sullivan (ed.), The Taft Museum, Its History and Collections, New York, 1995, Vol. II, pp. 523-525, Cat. no. 1931.242, where it is attributed to Faenza circa 1520-30, and Dora Thornton, ‘A bella donna from the Pasolini collection in the British Museum, Faenza, 2003, I-VI, p. 142, pl. IIa.
2. For the piece after which this painter has been named, see Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ‘Tesori nascosti: la collezione di maiolica italiana del Musée de la Tour du Moulin à Marcigny’, Faenza, I-VI, 2002, p. 84, pl. Va. Also see Thornton, ibid., 2003, pp. 144-146.
3. For the plate painted with the Temptation of Adam and Eve in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, see Jessie McNab in E.J. Sullivan, ibid., 1995, Vol. II, p. 522, fig. 3; A.N. Kube, Italian Majolica XV-XVIII Centuries, Moscow, 1976, no. 32, and Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ibid., 2002, Tav. VII, a and b. For the Louvre dish see Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, no. 341 and Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ibid., 2002, Tav. VII, c and d.
4. Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ‘Ceramica Forlivese della prima meta’ del’ 500: “Petrus”’, Keramos, No. 186, October 2004, pp. 9-34. For the dish in the Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, see p. 15, fig. 7.
5. The workshops in Faenza typically used berettino or blue-ground borders in combination with grotesques in the 1520s and a little later. Fragments of wares with yellow-ground borders and ‘petal-back’ reverses have been excavated, see Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, p. 147, where he illustrates a yellow-ground Faenza plate with the more typical form of grotesques used at Faenza in the 1520s.
6. Carola Fiocco, Gabriella Gherardi and Liliane Sfeir-Fakhri, Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 42-43, no. 20.
7. See Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, p. 200.
The present lot is very similar in style to a dish in the Taft Museum which is painted with Orpheus Lamenting the Death of Eurydice. The Taft dish has a border with grotesques of a type which are more typical of Faenza in the 1520s, but unusually, these are set against compartments of different colors. The anonymous author of the Taft Museum dish was dubbed the ‘Master of the Taft Orpheus’ by Jessie McNab(1). Independently, a plate at Marcigny of very similar style was attributed to the ‘Painter of the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ by Fiocco and Gherardi(2), who demonstrated that the painter worked at both Faenza and nearby Forlì. In her grouping of works by the ‘Master of the Taft Orpheus’, McNab included a plate at St. Petersburg and a dish in the Louvre, pieces which Fiocco and Gherardi included in their grouping for the ‘Painter of the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’(3). The two painters may be the same.
Although the figures on the present lot are very similar to those in the ‘Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ group, and other features are identical, such as the narrow, hatched bands edging the borders, or the stylized mountains, there are differences in the way the trees and foliage are painted, so it is not clear if the present lot is by a different, very similar, hand, or by the same painter. Two years after their article on the ‘Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny’ piece, Fiocco and Gherardi published another article where they argue that the Marcigny piece is by the painter of a dish in Bologna inscribed Pietro da Castel(4).
The yellow-ground border with grotesques is unusual for Faenza(5), and the type of grotesques are atypical for the city as well, as is the reverse. A plate dated 1540 which is attributed to Faenza and which has a similar yellow-ground border with very similar grotesques to the present lot is in the Gillet Collection in Lyon(6). Although the palette is of a later date, the Gillet piece may be related to the Triumph of the Moon at Marcigny / Petrus group.
The outer rim of the plate is lacking, most likely because it was cut down to enable it to fit into a frame, possibly at some point between the 17th century and early 19th century. Istoriato maiolica plates and bowls were often treated as pictures, and it was thought that they were painted by well-known Renaissance artists such as Raphael (which gave rise to the term ‘Raphaelware’)(7).
1. Jessie McNab in E.J. Sullivan (ed.), The Taft Museum, Its History and Collections, New York, 1995, Vol. II, pp. 523-525, Cat. no. 1931.242, where it is attributed to Faenza circa 1520-30, and Dora Thornton, ‘A bella donna from the Pasolini collection in the British Museum, Faenza, 2003, I-VI, p. 142, pl. IIa.
2. For the piece after which this painter has been named, see Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ‘Tesori nascosti: la collezione di maiolica italiana del Musée de la Tour du Moulin à Marcigny’, Faenza, I-VI, 2002, p. 84, pl. Va. Also see Thornton, ibid., 2003, pp. 144-146.
3. For the plate painted with the Temptation of Adam and Eve in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, see Jessie McNab in E.J. Sullivan, ibid., 1995, Vol. II, p. 522, fig. 3; A.N. Kube, Italian Majolica XV-XVIII Centuries, Moscow, 1976, no. 32, and Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ibid., 2002, Tav. VII, a and b. For the Louvre dish see Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, no. 341 and Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ibid., 2002, Tav. VII, c and d.
4. Carola Fiocco and Gabriella Gherardi, ‘Ceramica Forlivese della prima meta’ del’ 500: “Petrus”’, Keramos, No. 186, October 2004, pp. 9-34. For the dish in the Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, see p. 15, fig. 7.
5. The workshops in Faenza typically used berettino or blue-ground borders in combination with grotesques in the 1520s and a little later. Fragments of wares with yellow-ground borders and ‘petal-back’ reverses have been excavated, see Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, p. 147, where he illustrates a yellow-ground Faenza plate with the more typical form of grotesques used at Faenza in the 1520s.
6. Carola Fiocco, Gabriella Gherardi and Liliane Sfeir-Fakhri, Majoliques Italiennes du Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Lyon, Collection Gillet, Dijon, 2001, pp. 42-43, no. 20.
7. See Timothy Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting, Turin, 2018, p. 200.