Plate
ca. 1510 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Decoration of this sort, known as grotteschi, became fashionable in Renaissance Italy following the discovery in Rome, in about 1480, of the so-called Golden Palace of the Emperor Nero. The excavated chambers contained perfectly preserved wall and ceiling paintings, comprising fantastical creatures, ribbons and festoons. These ornaments provided artists of all kinds with a rich source of inspiration. The almost infinite possibilities of design gave them the means to fulfil the desires of the Renaissance market for beauty, abundance, caprice and wit.
The colours and composition of the grotesque on this roundel (of unknown use) are very similar to Bernardino's Pinturicchio's decorations in the Piccolomini Library at Siena Cathedral, painted in 1503-8.
The colours and composition of the grotesque on this roundel (of unknown use) are very similar to Bernardino's Pinturicchio's decorations in the Piccolomini Library at Siena Cathedral, painted in 1503-8.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Tin-glazed earthenware (mailoica) |
| Brief description | Flat plate, tin-glazed earthenware painted in colours, with grotesque decoration and unknown arms |
| Physical description | Flat plate painted in blue, yellow, red, orange and copper green on a black ground, with a symmetrical grotesque composition inclufing two coats of arms. On the reverse concentric circles in blue, green, yellow and ochre-brown. The body of the plate was probably first covered with a light slip before being tin-glazed. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Castellani Collection Historical significance: The colours and composition of the grotesque on this roundel (of unknown use) are very similar to Bernardino's Pinturicchio's decorations in the Piccolomini Library at Siena Cathedral, painted in 1503-8 |
| Historical context | This flat plate is of a type known as a 'trencher', used at the table for an individual diner very much as we use an individual plate today. During the middle-ages people ate from communal dishes and individual plates made out of wood were introduced around 1400. These were gradually replaced by similar shapes is made in earthenware or pewter. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Decoration of this sort, known as grotteschi, became fashionable in Renaissance Italy following the discovery in Rome, in about 1480, of the so-called Golden Palace of the Emperor Nero. The excavated chambers contained perfectly preserved wall and ceiling paintings, comprising fantastical creatures, ribbons and festoons. These ornaments provided artists of all kinds with a rich source of inspiration. The almost infinite possibilities of design gave them the means to fulfil the desires of the Renaissance market for beauty, abundance, caprice and wit. The colours and composition of the grotesque on this roundel (of unknown use) are very similar to Bernardino's Pinturicchio's decorations in the Piccolomini Library at Siena Cathedral, painted in 1503-8. |
| Bibliographic reference | Rackham B., Italian Maiolica, London, Faber &Faber, 1952
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| Other number | 383 - Rackham (1977) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 656-1884 |
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| Record created | June 7, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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