CIRCA 1730-40

Details

TWO CASTELLI MAIOLICA CAMPANA-SHAPED TWO-HANDLED VASES AND DOMED COVERS
CIRCA 1730-40
Each painted by Liborio Grue and signed L.G.P., with blue upright handles, the first with Triton and a nereid playing pan-pipes beside Cupid in a continuous seascape, the other side with putti battling with a sea monster, the cover and lower part of the vase with beast masks below the initials .L.G.P. within grey shield-shaped baroque cartouches reserved against foliage and ochre and blue flowerheads flanked by putti, with traces of gilding, the spreading foot with two satyrs, within ochre and blue stiff-leaf rims (cracked through foot and restuck, one handle restored, restoration to rim with associated overpainting to interior, short hairline cracks to rim, small footrim chip); the second vase painted with two nereids carrying aloft a basket of flowers flanked by putti in a continuous seascape, the other side with a nereid drawn in a chariot by a sea monster before a putto carrying a flaming torch and another with a floral garland, the cover and lower part of the vase with similar beast masks and initials, within grey shield-shaped baroque cartouches reserved against foliage and ochre and blue flowerheads flanked by two kneeling scantily-draped figures in shades of grey, the spreading foot with two figures of satyrs, enriched in gilding, within similar blue and ochre lines and a stiff-leaf footrim (rim chipping)
The first 15¼ in. (38.7 cm.) high; the second 16¼ in. (41.3 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

The underside of the cover of the first example with remnants of red sealing wax with partial impression.

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Matilda Burn

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Lot Essay

Liborio Grue of Castelli (1702-1779/80) and his brother Aurelio founded a short-lived factory at Atri. Liborio's style is associated with dramatic biblical and mythological scenes, often incorporating figures copied from Annibale Carracci's ceiling paintings in the Farnese Palace, Rome. For a large vase painted with the same scene of Triton and a nereid playing pan-pipes and attributed to Liborio Grue see Vincenzo de Pompeis and Andrea Antico et al., Maioliche di Castelli nella Collezione Acerbo in Loreto Aprutino Pescara, Pescara, 2001, pp. 72-74, no. 47. Signed pieces by Liborio Grue are particularly unusual and only one other appears to be recorded in the literature, see the bowl and cover painted with similar figures after Annibale Carracci, signed Liborius Grue P., in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Bernard Rackham, Guide to Italian Maiolica, London, 1933, p. 77, pl. 44. See also the two covered bowls decorated with similar figures and mask cartouches in the Matricardi Collection, illustrated by Carola Fiocco et al., Capolavori della Maiolica Castellana dal Cinquecento al Terzo Fuoco, Exhibition Catalogue, Teramo, 2012, pp. 188-190, nos. 139-140.

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