Francesco Durantino (before 1520-1597)

Neumeister Munich, 29 June 2005, lot 14;

Angela von Wallwitz, Munich, 2006;

Where acquired.

FRANCESCO DURANTINO (before 1520-1597)

Francesco di Bernardino de’ Nanni, known as Francesco Durantino, was one of the most prolific istoriato-painters. He was presumably a native of Castel Durante, perhaps born about 1520, but was working in Urbino, probably for the workshop of Guido Durantino by 1537.

In 1543, he signed a contract with the workshop owner Guido Merlino. From 1547 until 1578, he engaged in a series of often turbulent, nomadic ventures throughout central and northern Italy, starting from the kiln he ran at Monte Bagnolo, Perugia, moving to Nazzano, close to Rome in the 1560s and was later employed by the Duke of Savoy in Turin.

Durantino later returned to Nazzano where he produced works in the manner of bianco di Faenza.

FRANCESCO DURANTINO IN GUIDO DI MERLINO’S WORKSHOP

Francesco Durantino signed two plates in Guido di Merlino workshop: one in the MAK maiolica collection, Vienna, painted with Jupiter striking the Giants with thunderbolts, dated 1543, published by Wilson in Tin-glaze and image culture the MAK maiolica collection, Wien, 2022, no. 48, pp. 88-89 and a ewer with basin, dated 1544, is located at Güstrow Palace, Germany (Wilson, The Maiolica-Painter Francesco Durantino: Mobility and Collaboration in Urbino istoriato, in Glaser 2004, op.cit., figs. 5,6,7,9).     

Though we lack definitive documentary evidence regarding the duration of this collaboration, it is likely that this dish was painted in the workshop of Guido Merlino, alongside numerous other istoriato plates painted by Francesco Durantino and dated 1544 and 1545. In 1547, Durantino relocated to Monte Bagnolo, a wooded hill north of Perugia, where he remained active until around 1556. Later, from 1566 to 1575, he is documented as working as a potter in Rome.

SUBJECT

The scene depicted on this plate illustrates the mythological death of the Athenian Icarius, who, according to legend, was entrusted with the secret of winemaking by the god Dionysus. After offering the god hospitality in Attica, Icarius was taught how to cultivate vines and shared the resulting wine with his fellow countrymen. Mistaking their inebriation for poisoning, a group of shepherds killed Icarius and cast his body into the well of Anygrus. The inscription on the present plate refers to this episode and translated as: “from Ovid Book X. Icarius of Athens was the first to discover drinking wine and thus inebriated was thrown into a well.”

This subject is not mentioned by Ovid, but is added (Book 10, Chap. 24) in the Italian Prose Paraphrases of Ovid Metamorphoses by Giovanni de’ Bonsignori, published in an illustrated edition in Venice in 1497 and much used by maiolica painters. 

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. 65, p.169;

T. Wilson, "The Maiolica-Painter Francesco Durantino: Mobility and Collaboration in Urbino istoriato", in Glaser, 2004, pp. 111-145.