Attributed to the “Decollation Painter”, Lustred by Maestro Giorgio, Italian, Gubbio, circa 1524-1530

Baron Gustave de Rothschild (1829 - 1911);

Société Seligmann, Paris;

Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 16-17 March 1914, lot 30;

Dr. Robert Bak Collection (1908 - 1974), New York;

Sotheby's London, 7 December 1965, lot 58;

Bought by E.C. Crosfield;

Sotheby's London, 21 November 2006, lot 2;

Where acquired.

T. Wilson, in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, pp. 182–184.

The scene on this bowl can be attributed to the painter that Wilson refers to as The Decollation Painter from the dish in the Ashmolean Museum painted with the Decollation (inv. no. WA1896.CDEF.C431). This bowl is part of a coherent and fine group of lustred pieces discussed by Wilson in The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting of a private collection (Turin 2018, no. 174 p. 394), which dates between 1524 and 1527.

The painter’s style is close to that of Nicola da Urbino with the balanced composition, impression of spatial depth, and inclusion of an elegant figure in contrapposto. The figures are also distinguished by their mannered presentation and their very straight, "Roman" noses. Works by this painter, which date from 1524 to 1527, are all lustred and were probably executed in Maestro Giorgio’s workshop in Gubbio. There is evidence that Maestro Giorgio’s studio employed istoriato painters from Urbino and/or Castel Durante at this date.

The attribution to The Decollation Painter, has reached consensus among specialists, although several Italian scholars have suggested an attribution to The Phaethon Painter based on the plate in the Museo Comunale in Gubbio, and Mallet has suggested The Painter of Aeneas in Italy from an un-lustred plate in Bologna. The painter’s work is most recently discussed by Elisa Sani, “Uscendo dall’ombra di Nicola da Urbino. Il Pittore di Enea in Italia o il Maestro della Decollazione?”, Faenza 108, 2022, no. 2, pp. 8-19.

THE WOMAN OF SESTOS AND THE EAGLE

The subject derives from Natural History by Pliny the Elder (Book 10, Chapter 5), who famously perished during the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Widely read throughout the Renaissance, Pliny’s Natural History circulated in several vernacular editions, including a popular Italian translation by Cristoforo Landino.

In this passage, Pliny recounts the story of an unusually loyal eagle living near Sestos, a town on the Hellespont. Raised by a young girl, the eagle formed a deep bond with her. As it grew, the bird began to express its devotion by bringing her gifts of other birds it had caught, and later larger gifts. In a final and dramatic gesture of loyalty, when the girl died and her body was laid upon the funeral pyre, the eagle is said to have thrown itself into the flames and died beside her.

This poignant tale inspired a dish painted by Francesco Xanto Avelli in 1532. The subject is discussed and illustrated by Wilson in Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (op.cit., pp. 182–184), where he cites another version of the story seen on a plate in the Musei Civici, Pesaro.

RELATED LITERATURE

E. Sani, “Uscendo dall’ombra di Nicola da Urbino. Il Pittore di Enea in Italia o il Maestro della Decollazione?”, Faenza 108, 2022, no. 2, pp. 8-19;

T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting of a private collection, Turin 2018, no.174 pp. 394-395;

T. Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2017, no 111, pp. 251-253;

D. Thornton and T. Wilson in Italian Renaissance Ceramics: a catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London 2009, Vol II, no. 315. pp. 515-516;

J. E. Poole, Italian Maiolica and Incised Slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, no. 378, pp. 308-311;

J.V.G. Mallet, Majoliques italiennes de la Renaissance dans la collection Hamburger in La donation Clare van Beusekom-Hamburger Faïences et porcelaines des XVIe-XVIIIe siècles exhibition catalogue, Musée Ariana, Genève, 1994, pp. 14-27; 

J.V.G. Mallet, “In Botega di Maestro Guido Durantino in Urbino,” The Burlington Magazine, May, 1987, pp. 284-298;

C. Ravanelli Guidotti, Ceramiche Occidentali del Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna, Bologna, 1985, no. 104, pp.138, 139.