Apollo slaying the Sons of Niobe

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Title/s

Apollo slaying the Sons of Niobe

Maker/s

Guido di Merlino possibly (workshop)

Polidoro da Caravaggio (Polidoro Caldara) after (painter) [ULAN info: Italian artist, 1490/1500-1543]

Category

tin-glazed earthenware
maiolica

Name

dish

School/Style

Renaissance

Description

Dish. Earthenware, in-glazed overall; the reverse pale beige. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, stone, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white. Shape approximately 64 with plain rim. Circular with almost flat rim, and wide shallow well; warped in firing. Apollo slaying the Sons of Niobe. Apollo stands on the left, firing his bow towards the stampeding horses of the sons of Niobe, five of whom are wholly or partly visible. Behind Apollo is the head of an old man. Further back to left there is a group of trees on either side of a rock, and to right, the citadel of Cadmus and two trees. In the distance there is a landscape with a mountain. A black band and a wider yellow band encircle the outer edge. The back is inscribed in the middle in blue: `Febbo saetto li ffillole de/Niobbe .548' (Phoebus shoots the sons of/Niobe).

Production Notes

The design was derived from the facade of the Palazzo Milesi, via della Maschera d'Oro, Rome, which Polidoro da Caravaggio (1492-1543) completed before the Sack of Rome in 1527. It was the most celebrated of his facades and was the last of those listed by Vasari. The facade has deteriorated so that only the faintest shadows of its former splendour remain. But the whole scheme can be seen in Enrico Maccari's Graffiti e chiaroscuri esistenti nell'esterno delle case di Roma, undated but published in 1876. The frieze illustrating the story of Niobe ran from left to right along the facade above the doorways and below the first-floor windows. No print of this facade is known before 1548 so presumably the painter of the dish had access to drawings made in Rome.

Production Place

Urbino (workshop) (place)

The Marches (workshop) (region)

Italy (workshop) (country)

Rome (painter) (place) ()

Italy (painter) (country) ()

Technique Description

Earthenware, in-glazed overall; the reverse pale beige. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, stone, brown, manganese-purple, black, and white.

Dimensions

height: (whole): 4 cm
diameter: (rim): 42.8 cm

Period

mid 16th century
Renaissance

Date

1548

Provenance

bequeathed: Shannon, Charles H. 1937 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection)

Conte Ferdinando Pasolini Dall'Onda, Faenza; sold Paris, Ridel, 14 December 1853, Catalogue d'une belle collection de majoliques italiennes des diverses fabriques des XVe, XVIe & XVIIe siècles dont la vente aura lieu Rue des Jeuneurs n. 42, salle 2., lot 212. Perhaps Joseph Marryat; Christie's, 16 February 1866, Catalogue of works of art formed during a long series of years by Joseph Marryat Esq., author of the well-known work on `Pottery and Porcelain', p. 52, lot 850. Charles Ricketts, RA and Charles H. Shannon, RA.

C.H. Shannon Bequest

Inscriptions/Marks

1. 
   Position: on the back
   Method: painted
   Content: Febbo saetto li ffillole de/Niobbe .548
   Interpretation: Describes the scene on the front and gives date of manufacture
   Language: Italian
   Translation: Phoebus shoots the sons of/Niobe 1548
   

Documentation

1. Frati, Luigi (1852) Del Museo Pasolini in Faenza, Descrizione, Faenza [page: 19]
   [comments: Publ. Probably the dish listed as no. 120]
2. Marabottini, Alessandro (1969) Polidoro da Caravaggio, Rome [page: 357-60]
   [comments: Publ. pp. 357-60, no. 402, for a description of the dish, the sources of its design, and a discussion of possible workshops in which it was made. See fig. 37 for an illustration of the facade of the Palazzo Milesi, Rome, published by Enrico Maccari in 1876, and fig. 38, an anonymous drawing in the Albertina, Vienna, after the appropriate part of the facade.]
3. Birke, Veronike (1997) Die Italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, Generalwerzeichnis, Vienna, Cologne, and Weimar [page: 126-9, 366-9]
   [comments: Ref. For the facade of the Palazzo Milesi, see vol. I, pp. 126-9 and 366-9 and pls. CXLVI-CXLVIII]
4. Marabottini, Alessandro (1969) Polidoro da Caravaggio, Rome [page: 2124]
   [comments: Ref. For a drawing showing the appropriate part of the facade of the Palazzo Milesi, attributed to Polidoro da Caravaggio, Albertina, inv. no. 17273,]

Other Notes

The deaths of Niobe's sons are described in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VI, 215-66. Niobe was excessively proud of her seven sons and seven daughters. Consequently when the women of Thebes began to worship the goddess Latona who had only two children, Apollo and Diana, Niobe was greatly displeased and spoke slightingly of the goddess. Latona appealed to Apollo and Diana to avenge her and they shot to death first Niobe's sons, and then her grieving daughters.

Accession Number

EC.3-1937 (Applied Arts)
(Reference Number: 47189; Input Date: 2002-05-04 / Last Edit: 2010-01-19)