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The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides | |
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Title/s | The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides |
Maker/s | Durantino, Guido (workshop) [ULAN info: Italian ceramist, act.1520-1576] Gatti, Camillo attributed (painter) [ULAN info: Italian ceramist, d.1567] Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo) after (painter) [ULAN info: Italian artist, 1494-1540] Caraglio, Giovanni Giacomo after (printmaker) |
Category |
tin-glazed earthenware |
Name | dish |
School/Style | |
Description | Maiolica dish, painted in polychrome, with The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed on both sides; the glaze on the reverse is pale beige and speckled. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, beige, brown, manganese, black, and a little white high-lighting. Shape 64. Circular with narrow rim, and wide, shallow well. The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides. The nine daughters of Pierus stand on the right separated by a stream from the Muses, led by Callipte who holds a harp. Above, a group of nymphs, gods and goddesses, including Apollo and Minerva, serve as judges. In the landscape background there are stunted trees on hills, and on the right, a coastline with buildings and distant mountains. The edge is yellow. The back is inscribed in the middle in blue, 'Ausae Cum Musjs Committere proelja/Voce Victae nunc Volitant jmmitantes/omnia pjcae/Fatto jn Urbino in Botega de Mo (o raised)/Guido da Casteldurante' (Having dared to have contests with the Muses and defeated by voice, they now fly away as magpies imitating everything). Single yellow bands encircle the junction of the rim and well, and the outer edge. |
Production Notes | The source of the design was an engraving by G.G. Caraglio after The Contest between the Muses and the Pierides by Rosso Fiorentino (1494-1540), probably the painting now in the Louvre. The inscription on the back of the dish was taken from the bottom of the print where it appears in capitals, AUSAE CUM MUSIS COMMITTERE PROELIA VOCE VICTAE NUNC VOLITANT IMMITANTES OMNIA PICAE. The literary source was Ovid's Metamorphoses, V, 294-678. The nine daughters of Pierus, King of Emathia, overconfident of their musical talent, challenged the Muses to a singing contest. After all had performed, the adjudicating nymphs declared the Muses the winners. The Pierides unwisely clamoured against their decision, and as punishment for their presumption and rudeness were transformed into magpies. |
Production Place | Urbino (workshop) (place) The Marches (workshop) (region) Italy (workshop) (country) Urbino (painter) (place) () The Marches (painter) (region) () Italy (painter) (country) () Italy (painter) (country) () Italy (printmaker) (country) () |
Technique Description | Dish. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed on both sides; the glaze on the reverse is pale beige and speckled. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, beige, brown, manganese, black, and a little white high-lighting. |
Dimensions |
height: (whole): 5.2
cm |
Period | mid 16th century |
Date | circa 1545 to 1550 |
Provenance | bought: Sotheby's 1942 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) Probably the Comtesse de Cambis; Baron Achille Seillière; sold Christie's, 13 July 1888, Catalogue of Old Italian Maiolica from the Collection of a Well-known Amateur, lot 198 (95 guineas); Sir Otto Beit, London; Sir Alfred Beit, BT, MP, London; sold Sotheby's, 16 September 1942, Catalogue of the Important Italian Majolica the property of Sir Alfred Beit, B.T., M.P., p. 23, lot 63; sold to Louis C.G. Clarke for the Fitzwilliam.Purchased with the Glaisher Fund |
Inscriptions/Marks |
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Documentation |
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Other Notes | |
Accession Number | EC.35-1942 (Applied Arts) |
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