CIRCA 1730, PROBABLY WORKSHOP OF BARTOLOMEO TERCHI

Stylistically this plate is close to those attributed to both Bartolomeo Terchi of Sienna; see Elena Pelizzoni and Giovanna Zanchi, La Maiolica dei Terchi, Florence, 1982, p. 47, no. 26 for a barber's bowl decorated with a scene of the same subject taken from the same source. The central grouping of figures, excluding the baby Moses, is probably taken from one of two engravings after a fresco depicting the story of Niobe by Polidoro da Caravagio in the Palazzo Milesi in Rome. One was engraved by Hendrick Goltzius in 1594 and published by Jan Saenredam1 and the second, which is closer in terms of composition to the depiction on the current lot, was engraved by Giovanni Battista Galestruzzi, and dates from circa 1658.2

1. See the example (plate 6) in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, museum no. RP-P-OB-10.536F.
2. See the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. E.622-1991.