Dish thumbnail 1
Dish thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Dish

1556 (dated)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Deruta (made)

Dish, painted tin-glazed earthenware with lustre. Depicting a man washing the head of an ass and with the inscription 'CHI LAVA EL CAPO...'. Italy (Deruta), dated 1556.


Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Maiolica
Object type
Dish
Materials and techniques
Tin-glazed earthenware
Earthenware
Tin Glaze
Brief description
Dish, painted tin-glazed earthenware with lustre. Depicting a man washing the head of an ass and with the inscription 'CHI LAVA EL CAPO...'. Italy (Deruta), dated 1556.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 39cm
Marks and inscriptions
'CHI LAVA EL CAPO AL ASENO SE perd O, 1556' (Italian. Painted in middle on armchair)
Translation
Who washes the head of an ass wastes all his efforts
Gallery label
Dish Made in Deruta, Italy dated 1556 Inscription: 'CHI LAVA EL CAPO AL ASENO SE perd O' Tin-glazed earthenware 6665-1860(16/07/2008)
Object history
Purchase price note: Bought for £2 10s.
Polychrome unlustered example of the donkey subject in Robert Lehman Coll. Metropolitan, New York.
The De Maveri (Magnini) piece, acc. to Johanna Lessmann (letter 1986) was in Cat. Antiche Maioliche Per un Museo Regionale della Ceramica Umbra, Spoleto, 1980, ill. p.78. A description of a print, mentioned in the inventory of the Ferdinando Colon (Ferdinand Columbus (1488-1539) Collection of prints reads: 'A man washing the head of an ass which he holds above a basin'. The scribe notes that 'above are the letters "Chilana'' (Sic?). See letter from Malcolm Jones, object information file.

The full text of the inscription is: CHI LAVA IL CAPO ALL'ASINO PERDE RANNO E SAPONE.
This translates, roughly as 'He who washes the head of a donkey wastes his soap.'
Bibliographic references
  • Rackham, Bernard. Catalogue of Italian maiolica. London : H.M.S.O., 1977.
  • Fiocco, Carola and Gabriella Gherardi. Ceramiche Umbre. Faenza. 1988, vol.I. 130 p.
  • Fiocco, Carola and Gabriella Gherardi. La ceramica di Deruta dal XIII al XVIII secolo. Perugia : Volumnia, 1994. No.179.
  • Rackham, Bernard. Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, London : H.M.S.O., 1977
Other number
769 - Rackham (1977)
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
6665-1860

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Record createdJuly 16, 2008
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O160845/dish-unknown/
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