Italian, Duchy of Urbino, perhaps Pesaro, third quarter of the 16th century

Christie’s London, 8 April 1974, lot 194;

Where acquired.

For a list of pieces painted with this popular maiolica subject, noted for its “bizarreness” see Thornton and Wilson, 2009, op. cit. vol I, p. 333; and Wilson, 2017, op. cit. no. 6. p. 153; nos 73-74.

The classical story of Phalaris told of the brutal tyrant of Agrigentum in Sicily, who commissioned from the inventor Perillus a novel instrument of torture in the form of a bronze bull within which he would roast his enemies alive. The bull was designed so that the screams of its victims sounded like the bellows of the beast. When it was completed, Phalaris made Perillus its first victim. 

The story with its moral connotations was widely known in Renaissance Italy, from ancient history by Valerius Maximus, and from Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, both of which were readily available in Italian translation. It became one of the favourite subjects for Urbino maiolica painters.