AN URBINO MAIOLICA PLATE

CIRCA 1570

Details

AN URBINO MAIOLICA PLATE
CIRCA 1570
Painted with Alpheus pursuing Arethusa in a river landscape, Diana appearing in a cloud twisting up from a stream, a town and distant mountains beyond, within a blue line and ochre band rim, the reverse inscribed aretrusa e alfeo in blue within concentric ochre bands (chip to rim at 10 o'clock, chip to reverse of rim, further very minor small chipping)
9 1/8 in. (23 cm.) diam.

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Lot Essay

This plate depicts the myth of the rivergod Alpheus who fell in love with a young nymph Arethusa who had been bathing in his waters. He chased Arethusa but she was saved by the goddess Diana, who shrouded her in a cloud and then turned her into a stream. For a plate with a very similar scene, see Johanna Lessmann, Italienische Majolika, Katalog der Sammlung, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Brunswick, Brunswick, 1979, p. 284, no. 352.

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