Single Property

11-12 October 2011
Total sold € 1,247,466 Percentage of lots sold 52.6 % Percentage of lots sold in terms of value 159.2 %
CONTACTS
Guido Wannenes
Chiara Guiducci
Tel. +39 010 2530097 Fax +39 010 2517767

THE ARTE DEL VASAJO

Italian Renaissance maiolica has long been recognised as one of the most important peaks ever attained in the history of ceramics. It exercises profound interest among connoisseurs of Renaissance art and, more than any other applied art form from the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries, it is an example – with its original and vivacious colours – of just how much Humanism influenced the tastes and styles of the time in Italy. The Renaissance set out to reinvent classical antiquity. The domination of the Church and its patronage more often than not focused attention onto the greatest painters of religious art of the day. On the contrary, maiolica painters satisfied their high-ranking clients who sought artistic expressions that told their history and the story of classical mythology. These were painters who considered themselves as precursors of the most modern tastes. Their designs, based on both classical and contemporary subjects, were characterised by an accentuated aestheticism and by an attentive quest for pictorial quality by using captivating colour schemes. From such contemporary influences a new, figurative and highly characteristic figurative language spread through the country. In order to achieve such a high level of innovation, these artists developed a sophisticated technique of painting and firing that enabled them to use a wide range of colours and create a finer level of perspective. The white surface of the maiolica was thus transformed into canvas ready for their artistic creations. Perhaps for the first time, ceramics were especially produced and admired for their artistic component and not merely for their practical use. Renaissance maiolica was truly the “pottery of Humanism”. The nobleman, Cipriano Piccolpasso (1523/4-1579), a Humanist and painter of maiolica wrote the first European treaty dedicated to the production of pottery in 1569 entitling it I tre libri dell’arte del vasajo. This work, articulated according to a classical structure, claimed the status of “art” for maiolica. It was an illustrated compendium that described the basic productive processes of maiolica, providing recipes for glazing, pigments and lustres and offering useful advice to find materials and build the necessary instruments. Piccolpasso also included a section in which types and styles were ordered according to the centres of production. By commissioning pieces in maiolica, the upper classes claimed their position in society, considering that these purchases were esteemed to be the proof of high levels of sophistication, taste and grandeur. The new and complex range of colours and elegant designs captured the attention and the imagination of the most demanding clients and more often than not these pieces of maiolica were destined to be given to other members of the élite of the time as presents. After having received maiolica pieces as a gift in 1490, Lorenzo de’ Medici expressed his thanks with words which demonstrated how much value and sense of rarity were attributed to such pieces. Isabella d’Este Marchionness of Mantua, the Popes Julius II and Leo X, Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and his successor, Francesco Maria della Rovere, all commissioned works from Italy’s most important workshops. This high consideration of maiolica was destined to last in time: Renaissance maiolica has enriched many of the world’s most illustrious collections from the Nineteenth century to the present day, including collections beginning to Alfred Pringsheim from Munich, Alessandro Castelliani from Rome, J. Pierpont Morgan from New York, Lord Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild from Paris, Sir Richard Wallace from London and Robert Lehman and Arthur M. Sackler from Washington D.C. One of the aspects that makes this particular private collection so exceptional is the unusual presence of a large amount of top Venetian maiolicas. The collection contains examples from the most important workshops including the one linked to the work of Domenico da Venezia. Such examples cover a period of time that goes from the beginning of the Sixteenth century to the Seventeenth century – demonstrating the ways and techniques both in terms of decoration and of production through works by the most important workshops of the time in Venice, Deruta, Faenza, Castel Durante, Pesaro and Palermo. The artistic zenith of ceramicists and ceramic painters in the Sixteenth century remains to this day one of the cultural marvels of the Italian Renaissance and this collection, so carefully and ably, assembled, is the demonstration of this.
11-12 October 2011
Total sold € 1,247,466 Percentage of lots sold 52.6 % Percentage of lots sold in terms of value 159.2 %
CONTATTI
Guido Wannenes
Chiara Guiducci
Tel. +39 010 2530097 Fax +39 010 2517767

Villa Carrega Cataldi
Via Albaro 11 | 16145
Tel. +39 010 2530097
Fax +39 010 2517767
Via F. P. de Calboli, 6 | 00195
Tel. +39 06 69200565
Fax +39 06 69208044
Palazzo Recalcati
Via Amedei 8 | 20123
Tel. +39 02 72023790
Fax +39 02 89015908
6, avenue Saint Michel | 98000
Tel. +377 99 90 46 26
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