Collections Explorer

Maker(s):

Manara, Baldassare; painter; Italian, b. Faenza, active ca. 1526-1547
Unknown; pottery

Name(s):

plate
maiolica; category

Date:

1534
dated

Description(s):

Maiolica plate, painted in polychrome, with Atalanta's Race against Hippomenes.
Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall. There are two glaze faults on the back. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, manganese-purple, stone, and black.
Shape approximately 54 but shallower. Circular with a wide slidhtly sloping rim and shallow sloping rim and shallow well.
Atalanta's Race against Hippomenes. On the right, King Schoenius sits on a stool with two attendants standing behind him. Hippomenes and another youth race towards him from the left, while Atalanta stoops to pick up a golden apple thrown down by Hippomenes. In the landscape background are a castle, two smaller buildings and a bridge, a clump of trees, and distant mountains. Here and there on the grass there are pebbles and plants with one four-petalled flower. In the foreground there is a cartouche containing a kite-shaped shield charged with the arms or, a griffin segreant to sinister sable, in chief an inverted label of four points gules (shown orange) with three barrels (?) gules (shown orange) above. The edge of the plate is yellow. The back is inscribed in the middle in dark blue, `MD/XXX/IIII/>B

Production
Place(s):

Italy, Emilia-Romagna, Faenza
Italy, Emilia-Romagna, Faenza

Production
Note:

The scene on the dish was probably adapted from the woodcut entitled 'DE HIPPOMENE ET ATALANTA' in Tutti gli libri de Ouidio Metamorphoseos tradutti dal litteral in uerso vulgar con le sue Allegorie in prosa, Venice (Niccolo Zoppino and Vincenzo di Polo (Giacomo da Lecco)), 1522. The figure on the right is after

Technique(s):

tin-glazing; whole
painting; decoration; in blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, manganese-purple, stone, and black

Material(s):

earthenware; whole
tin-glaze; whole
high-temperature colours; decoration; blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, manganese-purple, stone, and black

Dimension(s):

height, whole, 2.7, cm
diameter, whole, 22.8, cm

Acquisition:

bought; 1939; Sotheby's

Inscription:

inscription; on base; painted in dark blue; M D/XXX/III/>B

Exhibition(s):

Italian Maiolica in the Fitzwilliam Museum. 1995-10-03 - 1996-01-07
Organiser: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Venue: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Cambs.)
Notes: Case 11, bottom
Catalogue number: no catalogue

Documentation:

Poole, Julia E.. 1995. Italian Maiolica and Incised Slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge.Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Pressp. pp. 256-8
Publ. pp. 256-258, no. 335, Colour Plate 29

Falke, Otto von. 1923. Die Majolikasammlung Alfred Pringsheim in München, II.The Hague:
Publ. pl. 107, no. 203

Sotheby's. Catalogue of the renowned collection of Italian majolica, the property of Dr Alfred Pringsheim of Munich.
Publ. lot 256

Ballardini, Gaetano. 1938. Corpus della maiolica italiana, II, Le maioliche datate dal l53l al l535.Rome: p. p. 25
Publ. p. 25, no. 126, fig. 122

Ravanelli Guidotti, Carmen. 1996. Baldassare Manara Faentino pittore di maioliche nel Cinquecento.Ferrara: p. pp. 142-5
Publ. pp. 142-5, no. 12. This book provides the fullest account of the career and work of this maiolica painter.

Poole, Julia E.. 1997. Fitzwilliam Museum Handbooks, Italian Maiolica.Cambridge (Cambs.): Cambridge University Pressp. 70-1
Publ. pp. 70-1, no. 30

Thornton, Dora. Wilson, Timothy. 2009. Italian Renaissance Ceramics: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection.London: British Museum Pressp. 147-8
Cf. pp. 17-8, no. 93 a broad-rimmed bowl of 1534 decorated by Baldassare Manara with 'Tuccia', inscribed MDXX/XIII/F.ATHAN/ASIVS/B M. The Fitzwilliam's dish is cited on p. 18, note 9.

Accession:

Object Number: EC.23-1939
(Applied Arts)
(record id: 80701; input: 2002-08-06; modified: 2011-12-15)

Permanent
Identifier:

http://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/80701