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Orlando finds Ruggiero's Charger Frontino, his Armour and Sword on board an abandoned Ship | |
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Title/s | Orlando finds Ruggiero's Charger Frontino, his Armour and Sword on board an abandoned Ship |
Maker/s | Avelli, Francesco Xanto (painter) [ULAN info: Italian pottery painter, act.1530-1542] Raimondi, Marcantonio after (engraver) [ULAN info: Italian artist, 1470/1482-1527/1534] |
Category |
tin-glazed earthenware |
Name | plate |
School/Style | |
Description | Maiolica plate, painted in polychrome with Orlando finds Ruggiero's Charger Frontino, his Armour and Sword on board an abandoned Ship. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall; there is a fault in the glaze on the left of the front; the reverse is off-white. Painted in blue, green, turquoise-green, yellow, orange, stone, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white. Shape 52. Circular with a wide, gently sloping rim and shallow well, slightly and unevenly convex in the middle. Orlando finds Ruggiero's Charger Frontino, his Armour and Sword on board an abandoned Ship. Oliver stands on the right holding Ruggiero's armour. Brandimarte is aboard the ship, holding out his arms towards Frontino, who is partly hidden by three shields and an awning. Orlando, girt with the sword Balisarda, sits with his back to the viewer on a rock in the foreground. Hanging from the mast is a shield, charged with the Pucci arms argent, a moor's head proper wearing a headband argent charged with three hammers sable, with behind, a papal ombrellino. In the background to left there is a tree, and on the right, a rocky island. The edge is yellow. The back is inscribed in the middle in dark blue: `.1532./Nel agitato Legno truova/Orlando di Ruggier' l'armi/Nel.XXXVII. cato del furioso d/.M.L. Ariosto./fra: Xato .A./da Rouigoi /Urbino.' (In the tossing vessel Orlando finds Ruggiero's arms, In the 37th canto of the furioso of Messer Ludovico Ariosto. Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo in Urbino.). |
Production Notes | Xanto was a freelance painter, it is now known in which workshop this dish was made. He constructed the scene with figures taken from the Abduction of Helen, engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael. |
Production Place | Urbino (painter) (place) The Marches (painter) (region) Italy (painter) (country) Italy (engraver) (country) () |
Technique Description | Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall; there is a fault in the glaze on the left of the front; the reverse is off-white. Painted in blue, green, turquoise-green, yellow, orange, stone, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white. |
Dimensions |
height: (whole): 2.7
cm |
Period | 16th century |
Date | 1532 |
Provenance | bequeathed: Horn, Marmaduke Langdale 1953 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) The Rev. Thomas A. Berney by 1862; Miss Berney; Sotheby's, 18 June 1946, Catalogue of fine Italian majolica, medieval and renaissance works of art, etc. . . . The property of Miss Berney formed by the late Rev. Thomas A. Berney, Bracon Hall, Norfolk, lot 22; Alfred Spero; Marmaduke Langdale Horn.M.L. Horn Bequest |
Inscriptions/Marks |
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Documentation |
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Other Notes | This is one of thirty-six dishes recorded from a service bearing the arms of a member of the Pucci family of Florence. The identity of the owner of the service is uncertain. Piero Maria Pucci of Florence (b. 1467) is one member of the family who has been suggested. Most of the dishes are decorated with scenes from classical mythology or history, but this dish and another in the British Museum differ in having scenes from one of the greatest romantic epic poems, Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). The action shown on the Fitzwilliam's dish takes place after the hero, Ruggiero, had abandoned his ship in a storm off the coast of Egypt, leaving on board his horse, Frontino, his armour and his magic sword, Belisarda. These were found by a Christian warrior, Orlando, who took the sword for himself, and distributed the armour and horse to his companions, Oliviero, and Brandimarte, in preparation for a battle with a Saracen, Gradasso. |
Accession Number | C.10-1953 (Applied Arts) |
Related Object | C.11-1953 - Ulysses commanding Circe to restore his Companions to their Rightful Forms |
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