Decorated in blue and manganese on a white tin glaze and moulded in relief. The centre with cavalrymen in battle, with a raised floral border in the manner of repoussé silver set against a manganese ground. This is one of the most spectacular of the moulded Pavia designs and striking for the thinness of the potting.
The central scene derives from a print by Giacomo Cotta after Giovanni Stefano Montalto produced in 1651.
We know of two other examples of the same mould decorated in blue without the use of manganese. An unmarked one is in the Museo Civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona (inv. F 164), and another marked CGR, the monogram of Carlo Guiseppe Rampini, to the reverse is in The Courtauld Gallery (O.1966.GP.109) . The Courtauld example has recently been published by Elisa Sani in ‘Italian Maiolica and Other Early Modern Ceramics in the Courtauld Gallery’.
This type was once attributed to Angorano in the Veneto, however in 1993 Elena Pelizzoni announced the discovery of archaeological evidence placing them in Pavia. As well as the archaeological evidence, the post-mortem inventory of Rampini refers dishes decorated with ‘archiettura con figura’ which refers to the related group also sometimes marked with the CGR monogram of the Rampini workshop (see Thornton/Wilson for a more detailed discussion). Other pieces can also be found with a combination of the moulded and architectural decoration.
Condition:
Three sections of the border restuck, chips to rim raised areas
Provenance:
Arturo de Angeli Collection (according to paper label)Semenzato, Venice, 6 November 1994, lot 130
Literature:
Elena Pelizzoni, Marica Forni, Sergio Nepoti: La Maiolica di Pavia tra Seicente & Settecento (1997), p. 64
References :
Elena Pelizzoni, Marica Forni, Sergio Nepoti (1997): La Maiolica di Pavia tra Seicente & Settecento (1997), pp. 62-64
Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson: Italian Rennaissance Ceramics: A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection (2009), pp. 561-566
Elisa Paola Sani: Italian Maiolica and Other Early Modern Ceramics in the Courtauld Gallery (2023), no. 54, pp.253-256
Price: £24,000
