Italian, Deruta, circa 1525-1550

Christie's London, 14 June 1994, lot 47;

Bonham’s London, 14 November 2007, lot 40;

Italika Collection, Sicily, cat. M83, Collection Italika : majoliques italiennes de la Renaissance’ sale;

Artcurial Paris, Collection Italika, Paris, 15 March 2005, lot 118;

Bonhams London, 14 November 2007, lot. 40;

Where acquired.

II Biennale della ceramica di Antiquariato, Faenza, 1990.

G. Gardelli, Italika Maiolica Italiana del Rinascimento. Saggi e studi, Faenza, 1999, pp. 408-409, no. 192;

Catalogo II Biennale della ceramica di Antiquariato, Faenza, 1990, p. 66. 

This exquisite plate belongs to a group of Deruta lustred dishes painted with profile busts of ideal heroes, warriors or halberdiers set within a classical style wreath, typical of Renaissance fashion.

The iconographic source for the subject and for the shape of the fantastic helmet, in particular, can be traced to important prototypes: the drawing by Leonardo da Vinci of a warrior 1475-80, British Museum, London, (fig. 1) and the marble relief by Andrea del Verrocchio of Alexander the Great, National Gallery of Art, Washington (fig. 2).

A comparable example to this type of dish is a piece with the profile of Lisandro in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto. A plate in the Museo del Bargello in Florence is similar to our dish in the subject and colour scheme with gold-lustre and a blue ground and is illustrated by M. Marini, (op.cit., no. 202, p.160.). A further dish painted with the profile bust of a halberdier wearing a fantastic helmet was sold by Sotheby’s, London, 5 July, 2023, lot 6 and was published in the Connoisseur (October 1966, vol. 163, n° 656, p. 109).

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Marini, Maioliche e ceramiche del Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Turin, 2024, no. 202, p. 160;

C. D. Fuchs, Maioliche istoriate rinascimentali del Museo Statale d'Arte Medioevale e Moderna di Arezzo, Arezzo, 1993, no. 292, p. 260, pl. 292, p. 89;

69 pieces of Islamic Pottery and Italian Maiolica from the Adda Collection, exh. cat. Cyril Humphris, London, 1-18 June 1967, no. 40;

G. Schurr, ‘’Continental Dispatch’’, in The Connoisseur, October 1966, vol. 163, no. 656, p. 109 (ill.);

B. Rackham, Islamic Pottery and Italian Maiolica. Illustrated Catalogue of a Private Collection [ catalogue of the Adda Collection], London, 1959, no. 346, pl. 157A (ill.);

B. Rackham, Catalogue of the Art Collection, 8 Cadogan Square. Vol.1. Italian Majolica and other Pottery [catalogue of the Wyndham F. Cook collection], London, 1903, p. 8, no. 39.