Maestro Domenego da Venezia Workshop and probably painted by him
An istoriato armorial plate with the Judgement of Solomon
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Italian, Venice, circa 1560-1590
Painted with the Judgement of Solomon within a frieze probably depicting the battle of the Milvian Bridge, below the allegorical figure of the River Tiber, the coat of arms possibly of Pietro Macciolini Maphalo, Rector of Law at the University of Padua between 1562 and 1563, inscribed on the reverse La sentencia di Solomon
Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
44cm. diam; 17⅜in.
Swiss Private Collection;
Rainer Zietz Ltd., London, 2007;
Where acquired.
The composition of the scene is taken from a woodcut by Pierre Eskrich in Figure de la Biblia, illustrate de stanze tuscane, per Gabriel Symeoni, (Guillame di Rouillé) published in Lyon in 1565, one of the small biblical picture books produced in Lyon published with Italian text for the Italian market (fig.1).
A plate with a similar composition at the centre, taken from the same source by Pierre Eskrich and within a similar elaborate frieze border, is in the MAK Museum in Vienna (see Wilson, Tin-glaze and image culture the MAK maiolica collection, Vienna, 2022, no. 11, p.45)
Two similar plates, also with designs based on Eskrich bible woodcuts, are in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum Braunschweig (see Lessmann, Italienische Majolika. Katalog der Sammlung, Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, 1979).
DOMENEGO da VENEZIA
Wilson listed the known signed and marked works by Maestro Domenego in The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting. Catalogue of a private collection, Turin 2018. A prolific maiolica-painter of exceptional range, his work often echoed the large-scale painting of contemporary Venice.
Monica de Marco proposed Domenego da Venezia the as the painter and the workshop-owner who marked several pieces; some of the pieces were signed in the first person indicating Domenego's hand and not just the workshop owner. The painter Domenego de’ Bethi (d. 1570, son-in-law of Jacomo da Pesaro) was originally proposed but the artist is now considered to be Domenego Rospo Becher, who died in 1602 (see De Marco in M.P. Panarello, et.al. Da Venezia alla Calabria. la maiolica Seicentesca di Gerace riscoperta. Briatico, 2022, pp. 38-57).
RELATED LITERATURE
T. Wilson in L. Hollein, R. Franz, and T. Wilson, Tin-Glaze and Image Culture. The MAK Maiolica Collection in its Wider Context. Catalogue by Timothy Wilson. Vienna/Stuttgart, 2022, no. 11, p.45;
T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting. Catalogue of a private collection, Turino, 2018, p. 438;
A. Alverà Bortolotto, Maiolica a Venezia nel Rinascimento, Bergamo, 1988, pp.97-98.
