Dish
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1545
Materials
earthenware, tin-opacified lead glaze, polychrome pigments
Measurements
270 mm (Depth)
Place of origin
Urbino
Order this imageCollection
Knightshayes Court, Devon
NT 540415
Summary
Dish, earthenware with tin-glaze (maiolica), shallow with broad rim, made in Urbino, Italy, c. 1545; painted with a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book III, the story of Jove (Jupiter) and Semele: Juno, the wife of Jove, dressed in a blue cape hovers in the clouds disguised as an old woman, Semele’s elderly nurse, watches the two figures of Semele and Jove in amorous congress, surrounded by cupids and clouds of smoke and flames; the underside inscribed ‘giove trafformato in fuscho’ [Trans. Jove transformed into smoke].
Full description
Juno disguises herself as Semele’s elderly nurse, having urged Semele to ask Jove (Jupiter) for proof that he is really a god. She suggests that Semele ask Jupiter to have sex with her in his godly form, as he would with his wife Juno. Persuaded, Semele makes Jupiter promise to give her what she asks, but as a result is set fire when the act is consummated. Semele's story demonstrates that the human need for proof from the gods is dangerous, and often results in death. From the thirteenth century, Spanish lustre-painted white-glazed earthenwares, called obra de málequa (Málaga ware), were imported into Italy. This technique of painting on earthenware covered with a lead glaze made opaque white with the addition of tin (imported from England), was an Islamic invention. In Italy this ware became known as ‘maiolica’. The limited pigments, which could withstand firing at 950˚C, included blue from cobalt, green from copper, yellow from antimony, orange from iron and purple from manganese. Cipriano Piccolpasso (1524-79), of Castel Durante, documented the production process in a manuscript I tre libri dell’Arte del Vasaio (‘Three books of the Potter’s Art’), dated 1557. Throughout Italy entrepreneurs, such as Guido di Merlino (See NT 540387), established pottery workshops and hired skilled craftsmen to prepare, throw, paint and fire this ware. Only a few signed their work, such as Franceso Xanto Avelli (NT 540390), the vast majority are the work of unidentified craftsman. From the large collection formed in the mid-19th century by the antiquarian Reverend Thomas A. Berney (1815-1895), of Bracon Hall, Norfolk; by descent to Miss Berney, sold at Sotheby & Co., London, Catalogue of Fine Italian Majolica, 18 June 1946,18 June 1946, the second of two items in lot 20, ‘An Urbino Armorial Plate, by Fr. Xanto, from the Pucci service, with Aeneas looking at the paintings of the Trojan War on the walls of Dido’s palace, 10 ¾ in., signed and dated 1532; and another Plate, painted with Aesculapius killed by the thunder of Jupiter, 10 ½ in., circa 1540. The lot purchased for 30 guineas (£31.10s.0d.) at the Berney sale by "Sir J Amory", Sir John Heathcoat-Amory (1894-1972), 3rd 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. The maiolica was later given by Joyce, Lady Heathcoat-Amory (1901-1997), née Wethered, a celebrated golfer.
Marks and inscriptions
'Giove traffonato in iusho'