Italian, 17th/18th Century

The Della Robbia Workshop produced naturalistic modeled and painted glazed terracotta baskets and plates of fruit and vegetables, as well as individual fruits, in the 15th century. This practice of making three-dimensional fruit was later adopted in Venice and Faenza.

Stemming from this tradition, the present lot was carved with varied surface textures and deep drilling to create plays of light and shadow bringing this sculpture to life. The design of the platter dates from the later 17th/early 18th century and the overall carving recalls the sumptuous bunches or fruits seen in Roman baroque sculpture, such as Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s figures of Bacchus.