Dish
workshop of Guido di Benedetto Merlino (active 1523 –1558)
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1545
Materials
earthenware, tin-opacified lead glaze, polychrome pigments
Measurements
47 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Urbino
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 540387
Caption
At the height of the Italian Renaissance, exceptional-quality ceramics were produced to be displayed as examples of high art, rather like paintings. The whole surface of this dish is treated as a picture and depicts a battle scene between the Romans and the Samnites, a story from The History of Rome by Titus Livius (Livy, 59bc–ad17). The composition creates a dizzying sense of the heat of the battle: spears are wielded with terrifying vigour, horses trample on fallen assailants, and a victorious banner representing Rome is held aloft. This particularly high-status, tin-glazed earthenware dish is an example of a type known as maiolica. It was made in the workshop of Guido di Benedetto Merlino (active 1523–58), a master potter based in Urbino. He employed numerous artists to depict Roman histories, mythologies and religious images known as istoriati (story paintings).
Summary
Large dish, earthenware with tin-glaze (maiolica), made in the workshop of Guido di Benedetto Merlino, San Polo, Urbino, Italy, c. 1545; this is a high status piece of tin-glazed earthenware, known in Italy as maiolica. It is richly painted in the 'istoriato' (‘story painting’ or ‘decorated with stories’) style. Cavalry bearing the Roman Republic’s SPQR banner dominate a scene full of incident, crowded with figures, faces glimpsed at all angles, discarded and broken weapons, wounded and dead men and horses. An inscription on the reverse translates as ‘How the Romans defeated the Samnites under the consulate of Valerius Corvinus. Made in the workshop of Guido di Merlino. See Titus Livius third deca [group of ten books] Chapter 23’. The subject is from the Roman author Livy’s, History of Rome, which was hugely important in the Renaissance revival of interest in Roman literature and history.
Full description
Guido di Merlino’s workshop, active between 1523 and 1558, was the second most important producer of ‘istoriato’ (story painting) maiolica, after Guido Durantino’s which was the first. The Knightshayes dish is an example of high status tin-glazed earthenware, known in Italy as maiolica. The term 'Istoriato' was used to describe a new style of decoration which emerged around 1500 and was often inspired by the work of contemporary artists. Di Merlino’s workshop was in Urbino, one of the major centres of 'istoriato' production. This and other known Di Merlino pieces depict characteristic istoriato scenes from Roman history, mythology and the Bible. Di Merlino employed a number of painters, notably Francesco Durantino. The entire surface of this dish is treated as a picture. The subject is from Livy’s History of Rome, which was hugely important in the Renaissance revival of interest in Roman literature and history. Marcus Valerius Corvus defeated the Samnites, from central southern Italy, in the first battle of the first Samnite War in 343–341BC. Another signed dish by this artist formerly in the Pringsheim Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s on July 1939, lot 38. Plates from the same workshop are in the Bavarian National Museum (Bayerishes Nationalmuseum), Munich, inv. nos. Kerr 2369 and 2018/88; and see also A. del Vita, "Le maioliche nel Muse o Civico di Bologna : III. Le Maioliche Metaurensi", Dedalo 5 (1924-1925), pp. 174-175. Sir John Heathcoat-Amory (1894-1972), 3rd Bt., of Knightshayes Court, purchased the dish in London along with 24 other pieces of Italian renaissance maiolica in 1946 in a single sale, Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of Fine Italian Majolica, comprising the property of Miss Berney, Lady Godfrey Fawcett, and Lt. Col. W.J. Stirling of Keir, on 18 June. This dish and 16 others were from the collection of the Reverend Thomas Berney (1815-1895) of Bracon Hall, Norfolk, formed in the nineteenth-century, much of it before 1862; and additionally eight pieces from the collection formed by Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), 9th Bt., of Keir, Perthshire, and later Pollok, near Glasgow, Scotland. This dish from the Di Merlino workshop was lot 36, ‘An interesting signed Urbino Large Dish, by Guido Merlino (alias Merlingo), with an elaborate battle scene from the Samnite Wars, monted horsemen with banners, trees in the background and an inscription on the back reading :– “Come le Romani sconfisere le saniti soté il consulate de Valerio Coruino fato in botega d guido merlin Vedi tito liuio deco tercia ca xxiii”, 18 ½ in. circa 1540 (repaired)’. It was purchased by "Sir J Amory" for 55 guineas (£57.15s.0d.) at the Berney sale, suggesting Sir John attended the sale himself. William Burges designed Knightshayes, the High Victorian Gothic house, for Sir John’s grandfather in 1869, but his extravagant mediaevalising interior schemes were rejected in favour of John Diblee Crace’s more restrained decoration. Sir John and his wife Joyce, Lady Heathcoat-Amory (1901-1997), drastically altered the Gothic rooms. In the 1940s, they filled the Morning Room’s four corner niches with maiolica, where it remains – entirely in keeping with Burges’s vision of incorporating colourful pottery in Knightshayes’ interiors. The maiolica was later given by Joyce, Lady Heathcoat-Amory, née Wethered, the leading British woman golfer of the inter-war period. Exhibition history: London 1862, Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, on Loan at the South Kensington Museum, June 1862, cat. no. 5,299.
Provenance
From the large collection formed in the mid-19th century by the Reverend Thomas A. Berney of Bracon Hall, Norfolk; by descent to Miss Berney, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 18 June 1946, lot 6, purchased by Sir John Heathcoat-Amory, Bt., of Knightshayes Court; the house, part of the collection, the garden Sir John and Lady Heathcoat-Amory created, and part of the estate were bequeathed to the National Trust by Sir John Heathcoat-Amory in 1972.
Marks and inscriptions
Reverse of plate: Inscribed on the reverse 'Come li Romani Sconfisere/ li Saniti sote il consulate de Valerio/ Corvino fato in botega d guido/ merlino Vedi titolivio deco/ tercia Ca XXIII'
Makers and roles
workshop of Guido di Benedetto Merlino (active 1523 –1558), potter
References
The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting (exh cat) (ed. Gervase Jackson-Stops) National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2 November 1985 - 16 March 1986, Cat. 510, p572 Rackham 1932: B. Rackham, ‘The Berney Collection of Italian Maiolica’, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 61, No. 356 (November 1932), 214, Pl. IV, B Robinson 1862: J.C. Robinson (ed.),Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediæval, Renaissance, and More Recent Periods, On Loan at the South Kensington Museum June 1862, No. 5,299 (sic)