Le maioliche rinascimentali nelle collezioni della ... - Claudio Paolinelli

Flattish plate without well. Tin-glazed front and back. The reverse is
decorated on the white glaze with blue rings round a central spiral.
Diam: 24 cm.
The plate is fragmentary and incomplete, with extensive restorations
and completion of the painting on the front. The restoration was carried
out by Anna Grossi 17 . The original parts are the whole of the centre and
the greater part of the left hand side; almost the whole of the right hand
side is restoration.
Provenance: Said to have been found in the Province of Mantua;
private collection, Province of Mantua; Cesare Ugolini; Fabrizio Frizzi
Baccioni.
Bibliography: none.
424
Notes
1 Blindfolded Cupid represents the blind, irrational nature of physical
love (Panofsky 1975, pp. 135-183). Blindfolded love occurs on some
maiolica similar to this: Rackham 1940, nos 524-526, 533; McNab
1995 p. 521.
2 Poole 1995, no. 364, as “perhaps Castel Durante or elsewhere in the
Marches”.
3 Ravanelli Guidotti notes (Barbe and Ravanelli Guidotti 2006, no. 1),
with respect to a lustred Gubbio plate dated 1519 at the Petit Palais,
Paris, influence from potters of Castel Durante and the likely use of a
woodcut source for these figures of putti or cupids.
4 Fuchs 1973, no. 274. Fiocco and Gherardi 2004E, pp. 210-213, note
that in these years grotesque decoration with large putti was a characteristic
of Gubbio production, and is not necessarily to be considered a
specifically Castel Durante style, as as often been supposed following the
studies of Rackham (1928-1929).
5 Rasmussen 1989, no. 62.
6 Rackham 1928-1929; and for the more recent bibliography, Wilson
2004, pp. 203-204.
7 Fiocco and Gherardi 1997, pp. 18-19.
8 Ermeti 1997 does not in her careful account of finds from Castel
Durante mention material with this sort of decoration.
9 Ciaroni 2004, fig. 120.
10 Giannatiempo Lopez 1997, no. 30: a fragmentary plate found in the
vaults of the Sala del Trono in the Ducal Palace in Urbino with similarities
to the present plate. Though the colouring of the plate from
Urbino is brighter and the execution more rapid, the same decorative
scheme is used, with a bound cupid in the centre, flanked by two
breastplates on a strong blue ground.
11 Fano saw a notable growth in ceramic production in the sixteenth
century. The proximity of the Duchy of Urbino generated a continuous
“osmosis” of potters between adjoining districts. In the stores of the
Museo Civico (inv. C444) is a fragment of a plate with a rim decorated
with trophies on a dark blue ground and with ribbons filling the spaces;
compare Paolinelli 2003.
12 Balzani and Regni 2002B.
13 Ciaroni 2004, pp. 92-95.
14 Wilson 2005, p. 15. For further comparisons with fragments found at
Pesaro, see Piccioli 2000.
15 Among villas linked to the Gonzagas are the the Villa di Bosco della
Fontana at Marmirolo and the Villa Gherardina at Monteggiana.
16 Ciaroni 2004, pp. 49-56.
17 We are grateful to Anna Grossi for her kind collaboration.