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The Contest between Apollo and Pan | |
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Click on image(s) for larger view | |
Title/s | The Contest between Apollo and Pan |
Maker/s | Milan Marsyas Painter attributed to (painter) |
Category |
tin-glazed earthenware |
Name |
bowl |
School/Style | |
Description | Maiolica bowl with broad rim, painted in polychrome with The Contest between Apollo and Pan. Bowl with broad rim. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall; the glaze on the reverse pale beige, unevenly distributed and tinged with green in several places. There are eight minor flaws in the upper surface. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, and white. Shape 57. Circular with a wide, almost flat rim and small, deep well; the underside of the rim moulded with three bands of reeding. The Contest between Apollo and Pan. On the left, Pan sits on a tree stump holding his pipes. Apollo stands on the right, looking away from his adversary and holding a bow and a lira da braccio. There is a small tree behind Pan and a taller one in the middle. Suspended between their branches, there is a shield of Tuscan form charged with the arms azure, three crescents addorsed argent (one above and two below). In the foreground there is a path, and in the background, a hill town in a landscape. The edge is yellow. On the back, two yellow bands encircle the edge. |
Production Place | Urbino (painter) (place) The Marches (painter) (region) Italy (painter) (country) |
Technique Description | Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall; the glaze on the reverse pale beige, unevenly distributed and tinged with green in several places. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, and white. |
Dimensions |
height: (whole): 3.0
cm |
Period | 16th century |
Date | circa 1530 |
Provenance | given: de Pass, Alfred A. 1933 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) Given by A.A. De Pass |
Inscriptions/Marks |
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Documentation |
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Other Notes | The musical contest between Apollo and Pan is described in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XI, 153-71. The figure of Pan may have been inspired by the woodcut in Ouidio methamorphoseos vulgare, Venice, 1497, or later editions, but the likeness is not close. In the text Apollo has a lyre and holds a plectrum in his right hand, whereas on the dish he has a lira da braccio and a bow. This instrument resembled a viola or violin, but had a shallower bridge, a leaf-shaped peg box facing the front, and a wider finger-board with five melody strings running over it and two strings beside it which served as drones. During the Renaissance the lira da braccio was believed to be of ancient origin and was associated especially with Orpheus and Apollo. For this reason it was favoured as accompaniment to the recitation of poetry by professional poet--musicians, and by courtly amateurs such as Raphael and Castiglione. In pictorial representations of Apollo's contests with Pan or Marsyas, it symbolized the triumph of harmonious and ordered music over the wildness of the rustic pan pipes. |
Accession Number | C.133-1933 (Applied Arts) |
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