Single Property

19 November 2013
Total sold € 801,908 Percentage of lots sold 75.7 % Percentage of lots sold by value 95.3 %
CONTACTS
Guido Wannenes
Chiara Guiducci
Tel. +39 010 2530097 Fax +39 010 2517767

IMPORTANT REANAISSANCE MAIOLICA FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

The lots illustrated in this catalogue constitute a sort of fascinating thesaurus of the finest ceramic pieces to have been produced in Italy during the height of ceramic production that had been reached in the Sixteenth century. The places and the names of many of those creators who made Italian ceramics so great are part and parcel of a sale that starts off from the ceramics of the south of Italy and the Marches region and leads into the most important centres of ceramic production during the Sixteenth century, like Urbino with its ancient fabulae, or the gentle forms from Faenza or Venice, imbued with the city’s love for colour, or Montelupo and Deruta. During those years, in southern Italy, it was Neapolitan ceramics that dominated throughout the Aragonese period in both the ceramic pieces that were commissioned by the nobility (as exemplified in Lot 4 with the sixteenth-century albarello with the fine portrait of a woman) and in prestigious gothic, floral floor designs. In Sicily, on the other hand, more traditional forms and patterns were cultivated even though they were not devoid of influences from the renaissance repertoires of the continent. Further to the north of Italy, in the Sixteenth century, it was the Marches with Urbino, Pesaro and Casteldurante that were the leading centres on a national level, especially for istoriato ceramic production. Istoriato ware was created on the wave of the raphaelesque style that had spread throughout the art of the Sixteenth century in imitation of engraved works on paper that were popular at the time. These were works of formidable impact in terms of evocative and seductive figurative appeal. In Urbino, the workshops of Fontana and Patanazzi were of prime importance. More often than not, these workshops associated the term istoriato to the lavish raphaelesque decoration on their wares (as exemplified in the vase – Lot 23 – by the Patanazzi workshop, measuring 68 cm in height). However, the istoriato style is not solely a decorative style. It may also often be the foremost characteristic of a ceramic work. The istoriato plate depicting Joseph and Potiphar’s wife dated to 1535 (Lot 18) or the following lot, created a few years later in the Fontana workshop and decorated with the legend of Mercury and Argus, are fine examples of the istoriato style as being something more than merely decorative. Both the heraldic servito made for the Salviati family after 1555 (a beautiful plate, Lot 20) and the group made in the workshop of Antonio Patanazzi around 1580-1581 and decorated with the Candia arms (see the large two-handled amphora in Lot 22) are already known to scholars. Among examples from Pesaro, Lot 16 contains the plaque with the scene of the Creation from the Lanfranco dalle Gabicce workshop, dated to around 1540-45. Also from Pesaro, Lot 17 contains a vase that had been part of the farmacia bearing the Hondedei arms, datable to the period between 1550 and 1565. The Fifteenth century and the Sixteenth century in Montelupo, was a period that produced copious classical fifteenth-century “families” with cartoccio, palmetta persiana and occhio di penna di pavone designs, etc.) as well as monumental farmacia sets. The auction catalogue illustrates, among other things, a richly-decorated sixteenth-century cup with the Salvetti arms, in Lot 28. During the first half of the Sixteenth century ceramic production in Deruta witnessed the rise of highly-regarded artists and became renowned for celebratory plates and lusterware. This latter technique had come from the Middle East and was copied from the lustred decorations of the workshops in Valencia, in Spain (Lot 96). Lusterware attained unequalled results in Italy and produced some exceptionally fine designs as seen in the parata plate decorated with the figure of a putto on a dolphin, from the workshop of Nicola Francioli (“Maestro Co”) in the first half of the Sixteenth century (Lot 33). In northern Italy, Faenza had already become an important ceramic centre by the beginning of the Sixteenth century when it was competing with the Marches with its vaghezze and gentilezze, painted on light berettino blue, with Della Robbia festoons, arabesques and tangles. In the vaghezze and gentilezze designs there were polychrome trofei and quartieri, depicted on large farmacia sets that were destined to furnish emporia all over the country including the famed Sicilian aromaterie. A fine example of Faenza istoriato ware is the large three-foiled jug decorated with the scene of Leda and the Swan, dated to approximately 1545 (Lot 44) Faenza’s specialisation and trade in farmacia sets in the second half of the Sixteenth century succumbed to the skills of the workshops of Venice and especially to the highly productive workshop of Domenico da Venezia, that created pieces that were exceptionally decorative and based on vivid polychrome leaf and fruit patterns depicted on appealing glass-like ceramic surfaces full of medallions containing fascinating faces of men and women on bright yellowy-gold backgrounds, the same that were to be found on paintings and frescoes in Venetian art of the period. A fine example of the latter is a large albarello decorated with medallions and dated to the third quarter of the Sixteenth century, a work that is characteristic of the workshop of Domenico.
19 November 2013
Total sold € 801,908 Percentage of lots sold 75.7 % Percentage of lots sold by value 95.3 %
CONTACTS
Guido Wannenes
Chiara Guiducci
Tel. +39 010 2530097 Fax +39 010 2517767

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