Probably Fontana Workshop, Urbino, circa 1550-1570

Dr Joseph Chompret;

Chayette and Cheval, Paris, 19 October; 2011, lot 53 as Venice;

Rainer Zietz Ltd., London, 2011;

Where acquired. 

Musée Des Arts Décoratifs, (according to the paper label attached to the reverse). 

The Drunkenness of Noah (Genesis 9:20–27) recounts how, after the Flood, Noah planted a vineyard, made wine, and became inebriated. His son Ham saw his father lying in his tent with his genitals exposed and told his brothers, Shem and Japheth, who discreetly covered their father. As a result, Noah blessed Shem and Japheth but cursed Ham. The present depiction is based on a woodcut by the German printmaker Sebald Beham, from Biblicae Historiae, first published in Frankfurt in 1533. It was the earliest of the small format books of Bible illustrations that would become a key source for maiolica painters for more than a century.

Over twenty known maiolica plates depict Old Testament scenes after Beham’s woodcuts and are likely from a single service and probably produced in the workshop of Guido Durantino (later Fontana). A closely related example—a pilgrim flask painted with the same scene—is in the MAK Collection, Vienna (inv. no. KE 6697-1, Wilson 2022, op. cit. no. 2, pp. 34–35).

Print source: Sebald Beham’s engraving, Biblicae Historiae, Frankfurt, 1533.

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.2, pp.34-35.