Urbino Renaissance Maiolica Dish

Italian, circa 1560

Tin-glazed earthenware, painted in polychrome enamels with blue, copper green, manganese brown, and ochre yellow; the broad circular dish painted across the entire surface with a classical mythological scene, probably Hercules and Omphale, with Omphale seated at the left and the bearded Hercules seated opposite, draped in a lion skin, a winged Cupid reclining among clouds above, all in an extensive mountainous river landscape with trees and distant buildings; the rim edged in yellow.

Diameter 10 3/4 inches (27 cm).

The plate is a characteristic example of istoriato maiolica, the narrative mode of Renaissance ceramic painting in which the entire surface of a vessel was treated as a pictorial field for subjects drawn from classical history, mythology and the Bible. Urbino and the surrounding duchy were among the principal centers for this sophisticated production during the second quarter of the sixteenth century. The composition is closely comparable in subject and arrangement to Urbino or Ducal maiolica plates of circa 1540–1550, with a mythological episode set within a panoramic landscape.

With overpaint restorations; under blacklight the dish appears to have been in three pieces, with a crescent-shaped break between 7 and 10 o'clock and another related line extending from the female figure's breast across the dish to 2 o'clock.

Condition
With overpaint restorations; under blacklight the dish appears to have been in three pieces, with a crescent-shaped break between 7 and 10 o'clock and another related line extending from the female figure's breast across the dish to 2 o'clock.Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, is an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact and our Organization shall have no responsibility for any error or omission. Please contact the specialist department to request further information or additional images that may be available.Request a condition report