| Bibliographic references | - Frescobaldi Malenchini, Livia. Rucellai, Olivia. The Revival of Italian Maiolica: Ginori and Cantagalli. Firenze:Edizioni polistampa, 2011. pp 161,165,209. ill. ISBN 978-88-596-0975-9
- Frescobaldi Malenchini, Livia ed. With Balleri, Rita and Rucellai, Oliva, ‘Amici di Doccia Quaderni, Numero VII, 2013, The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection’, Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2014
pp. 132-133, Cat. 122
122. Plate with a portrait of Barbarossa
Re d’Algieri
1855
Ginori factory and Francesco Giusti (painter)
for Giovanni Freppa
maiolica painted in colours
diam. 47,8 cm; h 3,8 cm
no mark
inv. 2722-1856
purchased: Paris Exhibition, 1855, £ 8
From the purchase records of the Victoria& Albert Museum we infer that this plate was made at the Doccia factory upon commission by the antique dealer Giovanni Freppa who then sold it to the South Kensington Museum during theParisExhibitionin1855. Freppa had participated at the Exhibition with his own stand in an attempt to redeem his reputation after having been accused of commissioning and selling fakes. In1854, in fact, word had leaked out, and was later confirmed by Marquis Ginori, that Freppa for years had ordered from the factory exact copies of Renaissance maiolica pieces that he had later sold as authentic (BALLERI, RUCELLAI 2011, p. 78- 83). Freppa defended himself by saying that he had only been interested in reviving the ancient technique and this theory was set forward in an anonymous article issued at the end of the year in the journal L’Arte in which Freppa was praised as being “a very zealous connoisseur of fine art (LA RIPRODUZIONE DELLE ANTICHE MAJOLICHE 1854, p. 10-11; I wish to thank Rebecca Wallis for having shown me this article). After the article appeared, Freppa sent a letter to the director of the journal in which he publicly thanked the Ginori factory and, in particular, the chemist Giusto Giusti and the artist Francesco Giusti, for their contributions to the success of the enterprise (FREPPA 1854, p. 2) . The attribution of the plate to Francesco Giusti, which is demonstrated by the letter from Freppa, is also confirmed by a letter dated 22 April 1862 (AMD, arm. 1, palch. 3, cart. 154, ins. 2 Esposizione di Londra/Viaggio del Lorenzini/ Sue lettere) in which Paolo Lorenzini writes to Marquis Ginori saying that at the South Kensington Museum he had seen “amaiolica plate with a portrait of Federigo [sic] Barbarossa, made by poor Cecco Giusti, with a label that just said that it was an imitation of antique maiolica. The term “poor” referring to Cecco (diminutive of Francesco) can be explained by the fact that the painter, the first one at Ginori to specialize in maiolica reproductions, had died of cholera on September 1st 1855 (AMD, arm. 1, palch. 1, cart. 21, ins. 1 Ordini e disposizioni dal 1853 al 1855, doc. 1105). The document is significant because it tells us that neither the name of Giovanni Freppa nor that of the Ginori factory appeared on the museum label; for the curators this omission was perhaps a courteous gesture in consideration of the scandal that had occurred a few years later, but for Lorenzini it appeared to be a lack of recognition. The portrait of the pirate known as Barbarossa Re d’Algieri, painted in the centre of the plate is based on an engraving by Lorenzo de Musi dated 1535 (for an example, see British Museum inv. 1925,0406.130), while the grotesque decorations on the rim are taken from a Sienese plate with St Jerome Penitent in the centre (Victoria & Albert Museum inv. c.124-1931; see WARREN 2005, p. 731, n. 28) dated around 1510.The combination of the Sienese type grotesque ornaments and the profile of Barbarossa, from a stylistic and chronological point of view is quite unlikely and is probably a pastiche invented by Freppa. A plate identical to this one is illustrated in black and white with the caption “formerly Christie-Miller collection” in the repertory published by J. Chompret (CHOMPRET 1986, p. 118, n. 930) but it is not the Renaissance archetype used as a model for the V&A plate as I had originally proposed; it is most likely another fake commissioned by Freppa. It is curious to note that in the same year, 1855, Minton displayed in Paris a pair of plates with identical grotesque motifs on an orange ground with a portrait of the Empress Eugenie on one (given by the V&A to the Royal Collection in 1934, inv. RCIN 42893, and now displayed at Osborne, Swiss Cottage, Isle of Wight) and the other with a portrait of Queen Victoria (Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. 3340-1856). Eugénie and Victoria visited the Exhibition between the 18th and 27th of August (NAPOLÉON III ET LA REINE VICTORIA, 2008) and Minton might have had the time to make the plates in their honour which were inspired by the plate that they had seen in Freppa’s stand in May (I wish to thank Jeremy Warren and Timothy Wilson for this information).
O.R.
Bibliography: WARREN 2005, p. 731, fig. 11; O.
Rucellai, in THE REVIVAL OF ITALIANMAIOLICA 2011,
p. 208-209, cat. 30;MARINI 2011, p. 84; CANTELLI
2012, p. 222, fig. 9
- Marini, Marino, 'Il commercio di ceramiche antiche (e falsi) a Firenze fra '800 e '900', pp.127-140, in Pesante, Luca (ed.), Falsi e Copie Nella Maiolica Medievale e Moderna , Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze, 2017
p.121, Fig. 27
27. Plate with a portrait of Barbarossa
Re d’Algieri
1855
|
