Probably Lodovico and Angelo Picchi Workshop, perhaps painted by Andrea da Negroponte, Italian, Castel Durante, circa 1550-1563

Lockner, Würzburg (1990s); 

Dr. Hans Reimer Collection, Hamburg; 

Rainer Zietz Ltd., London, 2010;

Where acquired.

This plate forms part of a large, undated armorial service decorated with unidentified arms. It is stylistically connected to a group of maiolica objects distinguished by the same rapid, expressive painting manner. Comparable works include the crespina in the Museo di Arezzo (Fuchs, 1993, no.217), signed by Andrea da Negroponte, and several jars from the Boerio pharmacy set, some inscribed as products of the workshop of Maestro Ludovico Pichio in Castel Durante and dated 1562-1563.

Other plates belonging to this service are: The Gathering of Manna, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (inv. 48.1514, T. Wilson, op. cit., fig. a, p. 300); Simon before Priam, Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. OA 1592, Wilson, op. cit., fig. b, p. 300).

The same armorial device also appears on a saltcellar, probably made in Urbino rather than Castel Durante, preserved in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (E. Ivanova, op. cit., no.147).

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting. Catalogue of a private collection, Turin 2018, pp.342-343; 

C. D. Fuchs, Maioliche istoriate rinascimentali del Museo Statale d'Arte Medioevale e Moderna di Arezzo, Arezzo, 1993, no. 217, p.233;

J. Lessmann, Italienische Majolika, Katalog der Sammlung, Brunswick, 1979, p.148;

E. Ivanova, Mayolika Urbino XVI–XVII vekov. Katalog kollektsiy / Urbino Maiolica Sixteenth–Seventeenth Century. Catalogue of the Collection, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, 2019, no. 14.