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拍品专文
The central scene shows Joseph after his release from prison and appointment as Vizier of Egypt. It is derived from one of Bernard Salomon’s woodcut illustrations in Claude Paradin’s Bible picture-book Quadrins Historiques de la Bible which was published by Jean de Tourne in Lyon in 1553. An edition of this picture-book was also published in Italy, and the woodcuts became a regular source of inspiration for maiolicari.
The decoration of the present dish appears to be by the same hand as a dish of the same form in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which has a central scene depicing the Israelites gathering Manna after a woodcut illustration in the same 1553 Quadrins historiques(1).
The Metropolitan Museum dish had long been attributed to Urbino, until it was recently re-attributed to the Conrade family workshop at Nevers following research published by the scholar and dealer, Camille Leprince. In 2013 Leprince published a Nevers dish painted in bleu camaïeu alongside the New York dish to demonstrate their strong similarities(2), suggesting that the New York dish was also made at Nevers. In addition to similarities in the decoration, the New York dish is more than 5% smaller than Urbino pieces of similar form. Allowing for shrinkage after firing, this suggests that the New York piece was probably formed from a mold taken from an Urbino original. Reinforcing this theory is the fact that the strapwork on the reverse of the New York dish is painted in trompe l’oeil, rather than being molded into the body, as it would have if it were an Urbino original.
Although the present lot does include molded strapwork on its reverse, it is of almost exactly the same size as the New York dish. The painting of the two pieces is so close as to suggest that they may have been made as companion pieces. The grotesques of the New York dish correspond with the grotesques on the present lot, as does the coloring of the molded strapwork and the borders of both dishes.
Another large oval dish of the same form painted with The Triumph of Joseph is in the Louvre, which Leprince also re-attributed to Nevers(3). The Louvre dish is not painted by the same hand as the present lot and the New York dish, but nonetheless shows strong similarities with the present lot. On the Louvre dish, the kidney-shaped panels include grotesques similar in design to those on the present lot, but the borders are different. On the present lot, one of the central figures has a large curving horn which is also present on the print, but is absent on the Louvre dish. This indicates that the present lot followed the print, and cannot have been copied from the Louvre dish. On the present lot and on the Louvre dish, the distant house at the center of the main scene has a high-pitched roof with chimneys, whereas the house in the print has a low-pitched roof with no chimneys. As there are also similarities in the grotesques, this suggests that the author of the Louvre dish may have used the present lot as a model from which to work.
1. See Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 334-337, no. 117.
2. C. Leprince, ‘À propos d’un plat en faïence de Nevers’ in Sèvres. Revue de la Société des Amis du musée national de Céramique, no. 22, 2013, pp. 18 and 19.
3. Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, pp. 357-359, no. 1079 (Louvre inv. MR 3534), attributed to Urbino, and where the provenance is listed as being the collection of Edme Durand, which was purchased by the Louvre in 1825. Scholars had also assumed that that this dish was Urbino until Leprince, ibid., p. 24, fig 14, attributed it to Nevers. Françoise Barbe published the correct provenance for this piece, which was acquired by Anton Ulrich Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüwick in the third quarter of the 17th century; see Barbe, ‘Provenance as a Citerion for Attribution: Napoleonic Seizures in Braunschweig and the Maiolica Collection in the Louvre’ in J.V.G. Mallet and E. Sani (ed.), Maiolica in Italy and Beyond, Oxford, 2021, p. 146.
The decoration of the present dish appears to be by the same hand as a dish of the same form in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which has a central scene depicing the Israelites gathering Manna after a woodcut illustration in the same 1553 Quadrins historiques(1).
The Metropolitan Museum dish had long been attributed to Urbino, until it was recently re-attributed to the Conrade family workshop at Nevers following research published by the scholar and dealer, Camille Leprince. In 2013 Leprince published a Nevers dish painted in bleu camaïeu alongside the New York dish to demonstrate their strong similarities(2), suggesting that the New York dish was also made at Nevers. In addition to similarities in the decoration, the New York dish is more than 5% smaller than Urbino pieces of similar form. Allowing for shrinkage after firing, this suggests that the New York piece was probably formed from a mold taken from an Urbino original. Reinforcing this theory is the fact that the strapwork on the reverse of the New York dish is painted in trompe l’oeil, rather than being molded into the body, as it would have if it were an Urbino original.
Although the present lot does include molded strapwork on its reverse, it is of almost exactly the same size as the New York dish. The painting of the two pieces is so close as to suggest that they may have been made as companion pieces. The grotesques of the New York dish correspond with the grotesques on the present lot, as does the coloring of the molded strapwork and the borders of both dishes.
Another large oval dish of the same form painted with The Triumph of Joseph is in the Louvre, which Leprince also re-attributed to Nevers(3). The Louvre dish is not painted by the same hand as the present lot and the New York dish, but nonetheless shows strong similarities with the present lot. On the Louvre dish, the kidney-shaped panels include grotesques similar in design to those on the present lot, but the borders are different. On the present lot, one of the central figures has a large curving horn which is also present on the print, but is absent on the Louvre dish. This indicates that the present lot followed the print, and cannot have been copied from the Louvre dish. On the present lot and on the Louvre dish, the distant house at the center of the main scene has a high-pitched roof with chimneys, whereas the house in the print has a low-pitched roof with no chimneys. As there are also similarities in the grotesques, this suggests that the author of the Louvre dish may have used the present lot as a model from which to work.
1. See Timothy Wilson, Maiolica, Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 334-337, no. 117.
2. C. Leprince, ‘À propos d’un plat en faïence de Nevers’ in Sèvres. Revue de la Société des Amis du musée national de Céramique, no. 22, 2013, pp. 18 and 19.
3. Jeanne Giacomotti, Les majoliques des Musées nationaux, Paris, 1974, pp. 357-359, no. 1079 (Louvre inv. MR 3534), attributed to Urbino, and where the provenance is listed as being the collection of Edme Durand, which was purchased by the Louvre in 1825. Scholars had also assumed that that this dish was Urbino until Leprince, ibid., p. 24, fig 14, attributed it to Nevers. Françoise Barbe published the correct provenance for this piece, which was acquired by Anton Ulrich Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüwick in the third quarter of the 17th century; see Barbe, ‘Provenance as a Citerion for Attribution: Napoleonic Seizures in Braunschweig and the Maiolica Collection in the Louvre’ in J.V.G. Mallet and E. Sani (ed.), Maiolica in Italy and Beyond, Oxford, 2021, p. 146.