European Sculpture and Works of Art
European Sculpture and Works of Art
Property from a Swiss private collection
Workshop of Pietro and Paolo Bergantini, Italian, Faenza, circa 1524-1530
Maiolica broad-rimmed bowl
Lot Closed
July 4, 11:24 AM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Swiss private collection
Workshop of Pietro and Paolo Bergantini
Italian, Faenza, circa 1524-1530
Maiolica broad-rimmed bowl
painted in blue, yellow, manganese, green and red with grotesques on a ground a berettino ground, and centred by al greyhound below with a scroll inscribed SUM FVI ERO (I am, I was, I will be) above. Musical scrolls on the border at the top and bottom, and the coats of arms of the Martellini del Falcone family and the Tedaldi family on the sides
on the reverse, at the centre is a Pallone mark with a cross bowl and a dot in a quarter and B letter incised prior to glazing. The border on the back is decorated alla porcellana.
tin-glazed earthenware
diameter: 24cm., 9½in.
Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, Florence, 28 October 2014, lot 27.
The Coat of Arms
This richly decorated plate is probably part of an armorial service most likely commissioned to celebrate the marriage between the members of two of the most important families of Florentine aristocracy at the time, the Martellini del Falcone and the Tedaldi. The rarity of this plate is confirmed by the fact that only on other plate, of the same size and decoration, from the service is known, and is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Inv. C.2098-1910).
Both coats of arms are placed within a Robbiana garland frame and are centred by a crouching greyhound in a landscape with the same motto.
Musical experts have analysed the scores on the rim of the dish to link them to the families and to a specific event, such as a marriage, but no relationship has been determined to date. However, it has been suggested that the letters La- Do may allude to the espoused couple.
The Bergantini Workshop
The workshop run by brothers Piero (documented from 1503 to 1540) and Paolo (documented from 1507 to 1541) was one of the most important ceramic manufactures in Faenza during the first half of the 16th century.
The undisputed masterpiece from the Bergantini workshop is the famous bowl in the Museum Internationale delle Ceramiche, Faenza (Inv. 22019/c) with The Heroism of Marcus Curtius and with an inscription indicating it was made in Faenza in the workshop of Piero Bergantino and dated 17 June 1529. That piece has been attributed to an anonymous painter working in Piero and Paolo Bergantini’s workshop known as The Master of the Bergantini bowl.
The Pallone mark in association with the incised ‘’B’’
This mark within a circle accompanied with the underglaze incised B and occurs on the revers of several other outstanding Faenza berettino wares of similar type and it is likely that the mark refers to the Bergantini family workshop.
For a list of examples of the type, see T. Wilson, “Faenza Maiolica Services of the 1520s for the Florentine Nobility”, in Alan Chong, Donatella Pegazzano, and Dimitrios Zikos (eds). Raphael, Cellini, & a Renaissance Banker. The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti, exhib. cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, and Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, 2003-4, pp. 174-86; 393-4.
RELATED LITERATURE
T. Wilson, D. Thornton, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, A catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2009, vol. I, p.. 136; T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica Painting, Allemandi, Turin, 2018, p. 140.
We are grateful to Professor Timothy Wilson and Mrs. Greta Kaucher for their invaluable contributions to the research on this entry.