拍品专文
This dish is of a type which was originally attributed to Faenza and then re-attributed by Bernard Rackham in the late 1920s to ‘Giovanni Maria’ at Castel Durante, on the basis of the spectacular bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. The New York bowl bears the arms of Pope Julius II and the arms of Manzoli, its reverse is dated 1508 and inscribed with Castel Durante and Giovanni Maria(1). However, the attributions which Rackham made based upon his study of the New York bowl are now questioned by scholars; there are many differences between the pieces, which do not form a coherent group and are clearly by a number of different hands. There is currently a lack of archaeological evidence to support Rackham’s Castel Durante attribution, and fragments excavated at Urbino and Pesaro in particular have led scholars to believe that many pieces of this type were probably made at Pesaro, which before 1500 was the preeminent center of fine maiolica production(2). Groupings of concentric blue rings on the reverse of works (as is the case on the reverse of the present lot) are a feature which is common on fragments excavated at Pesaro(3). A dish in the Wallace Collection, London, is painted at its border with grotesques related to the present lot (including rabbits in a style similar to the deer on the present lot)(4), and a dish formerly in the Pringsheim Collection is very similar to the present lot(5), as is a bowl in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London(6). Other pieces which are slightly different but related include a bowl in the British Museum(7) and a plate in the Ashmolean Museum(8).
1. The inscription reads 1508 adi 12 de sete[m]b facta fu in Castel dura[n] Zoua[n] Maria vrô. Zouan Maria is a local dialect form of Giovanni Maria. See Jörg Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 100-104, no. 62. It is uncertain if Giovanni Maria was a pottery painter, a pottery owner, a painter who sometimes painted pottery, or none of these.
2. See Andrea Ciaroni, Maioliche del Quattrocento a Pesaro, Florence, 2004, where a large number of fragments are published.
3. See Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, p. 364.
4. A.V.B. Norman, Catalogue of Ceramics 1: Pottery, Maiolica, Faience, Stoneware, London, 1976, pp. 57-58, no. C13.
5. Now in a private collection, see Andrea Ciaroni, ibid., 2004, p. 156 (where it is dated circa 1490) and tav. XXIV.
6. Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, 1940, Vol. I, p. 172, no. 533 and Vol. II, pl. 83.
7. Thornton and Wilson, ibid., 2009, pp. 363-365, no. 214.
8. See Timothy Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017, pp. 206-208, no. 86.
1. The inscription reads 1508 adi 12 de sete[m]b facta fu in Castel dura[n] Zoua[n] Maria vrô. Zouan Maria is a local dialect form of Giovanni Maria. See Jörg Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 100-104, no. 62. It is uncertain if Giovanni Maria was a pottery painter, a pottery owner, a painter who sometimes painted pottery, or none of these.
2. See Andrea Ciaroni, Maioliche del Quattrocento a Pesaro, Florence, 2004, where a large number of fragments are published.
3. See Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, Vol. I, p. 364.
4. A.V.B. Norman, Catalogue of Ceramics 1: Pottery, Maiolica, Faience, Stoneware, London, 1976, pp. 57-58, no. C13.
5. Now in a private collection, see Andrea Ciaroni, ibid., 2004, p. 156 (where it is dated circa 1490) and tav. XXIV.
6. Bernard Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London, 1940, Vol. I, p. 172, no. 533 and Vol. II, pl. 83.
7. Thornton and Wilson, ibid., 2009, pp. 363-365, no. 214.
8. See Timothy Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017, pp. 206-208, no. 86.