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Lot Essay
One of the outer scenes on this dish depicts an event which had taken place only a few years earlier, the opening of the Holy Door by the Pope at St. Peter’s in Rome in 1550, a ceremony which occurred at the beginning of every jubilee, typically every twenty-five years. The scene on this dish is derived from designs attributed to Taddeo Zuccaro, and the same scene occurs on a plate in the Correr Museum, Venice(1). The 1550 ceremony conducted by Pope Julius III is likely to have inspired the drawing, helping to date it.
In 1551 the Duke of Urbino sent for Taddeo Zuccaro to work on the Chapel in the Duomo in Urbino among several other smaller projects. Vasari records that Taddeo worked and traveled with the duke for two years, and Wendy Watson has suggested that during this time it would be highly likely that Zuccaro could have produced designs specifically for maiolicari to use, especially given that his predecessor to work on the chapel project, Battista Franco, had also been commissioned to produce designs for maiolica.
A circular drawing in the Musée du Louvre, Paris and a rectangular drawing in Stuttgart depict only very slightly different versions of the same scene, and both drawings have been attributed to Taddeo Zuccaro(2). The present lot and the Correr Museum plate include elements derived from both of these drawings, suggesting that the maiolica painter was working from a third Zuccaro design, which is now lost, which incorporated elements from both drawings(3).
In the private publication of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild’s collection, the description for the present lot correctly identifies the opening of the Porta Santa in 1550 as one of the scenes, and describes the other four scenes as episodes from the life of Pope Julius III. These are identified as the Grand Master of the Maltese Knights, Fra' Juan de Homedes y Coscón, presenting barbarian captives to the pope; the marriage of Philip, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to Mary Tudor; ‘a speech to the soldiers’ and ‘figures kneeling before an army commander’. However, as the marriage scene depicts a couple in classical attire, the scene is presumably a marriage from antiquity rather than a contemporary ceremony. It also seems unlikely that the central scene would depict Homedes y Coscón presenting captives to the pope, as there was no decisive victory against the Ottomans at this time. The last two scenes, which show figures in classical attire, have much in common with the Zuccaro brothers’ designs depicting episodes in the life of Julius Caesar produced in the early 1560s for the ‘Spanish Service’, the maiolica service which the Duke of Urbino sent to King Philip II of Spain(4). If designs for these four scenes still exist, they have yet to be found.
The design of the putti on the border of the present lot owes a debt to the designs by Battista Franco which were given the Urbino maiolicari to use in the 1540s, and the absence of grotesques on a white background suggests that this dish pre-dates 1560/61, when grotesques burst into fashion. If this is the case, then the battle of Lepanto (in 1571, when the Holy League armada virtually destroyed the Ottoman fleet) is too late to be related to the present lot. It is possible the central scene depicts an episode following the conquest of Tunisia in 1535 (an event celebrated by the Francesco Xanto Avelli’s important charger in the evening sale of this series of auctions). The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V led the campaign himself, and celebrated this victory in Rome in April 1536.
Nothing is yet known about the commission of this lot. This intriguing dish awaits further research.
1. See Wendy Watson, ‘Taddeo Zuccaro’s earliest drawings for maiolica’ in Timothy Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery. Papers written in association with a colloquium at the British Museum, London, 1991, p. 182, fig. 1.
2. In 2012 Timothy Clifford re-attributed these drawings to Federico Barocci, but this view has not been widely accepted by Old Master Drawing scholars, see Timothy Clifford, ‘Disegni di Taddeo e Federico Zuccari e dei loro contemporanei per la maiolica’ in Marino Marini (ed.), Fabulae Pictae, Museo Nazionale del Bargello May-September 2012 Exhibition Catalogue, Florence, 2012, p. 106. The Musée du Louvre drawing (inv. no. 10322) was published by John Gere, Dessins de Taddeo et Federico Zuccaro, Musée du Louvre, XLIIe Exposition du Cabinet des Dessins, Paris, 1969, p. 25, where he suggested that the Louvre’s drawing was ‘presumably a design for the reverse of a commemorative medal which was never struck’, but Wendy Watson convincingly argues that this was almost certainly not the case, and no medal with Zuccaro’s design was struck, see Watson, ibid., pp. 177-178.
3. This idea is noted by Wendy Watson, ibid., p. 179.
4. See J.A. Gere, ‘Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica’ in Burlington Magazine, No. 105, July 1963, pp. 306-315.
In 1551 the Duke of Urbino sent for Taddeo Zuccaro to work on the Chapel in the Duomo in Urbino among several other smaller projects. Vasari records that Taddeo worked and traveled with the duke for two years, and Wendy Watson has suggested that during this time it would be highly likely that Zuccaro could have produced designs specifically for maiolicari to use, especially given that his predecessor to work on the chapel project, Battista Franco, had also been commissioned to produce designs for maiolica.
A circular drawing in the Musée du Louvre, Paris and a rectangular drawing in Stuttgart depict only very slightly different versions of the same scene, and both drawings have been attributed to Taddeo Zuccaro(2). The present lot and the Correr Museum plate include elements derived from both of these drawings, suggesting that the maiolica painter was working from a third Zuccaro design, which is now lost, which incorporated elements from both drawings(3).
In the private publication of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild’s collection, the description for the present lot correctly identifies the opening of the Porta Santa in 1550 as one of the scenes, and describes the other four scenes as episodes from the life of Pope Julius III. These are identified as the Grand Master of the Maltese Knights, Fra' Juan de Homedes y Coscón, presenting barbarian captives to the pope; the marriage of Philip, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to Mary Tudor; ‘a speech to the soldiers’ and ‘figures kneeling before an army commander’. However, as the marriage scene depicts a couple in classical attire, the scene is presumably a marriage from antiquity rather than a contemporary ceremony. It also seems unlikely that the central scene would depict Homedes y Coscón presenting captives to the pope, as there was no decisive victory against the Ottomans at this time. The last two scenes, which show figures in classical attire, have much in common with the Zuccaro brothers’ designs depicting episodes in the life of Julius Caesar produced in the early 1560s for the ‘Spanish Service’, the maiolica service which the Duke of Urbino sent to King Philip II of Spain(4). If designs for these four scenes still exist, they have yet to be found.
The design of the putti on the border of the present lot owes a debt to the designs by Battista Franco which were given the Urbino maiolicari to use in the 1540s, and the absence of grotesques on a white background suggests that this dish pre-dates 1560/61, when grotesques burst into fashion. If this is the case, then the battle of Lepanto (in 1571, when the Holy League armada virtually destroyed the Ottoman fleet) is too late to be related to the present lot. It is possible the central scene depicts an episode following the conquest of Tunisia in 1535 (an event celebrated by the Francesco Xanto Avelli’s important charger in the evening sale of this series of auctions). The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V led the campaign himself, and celebrated this victory in Rome in April 1536.
Nothing is yet known about the commission of this lot. This intriguing dish awaits further research.
1. See Wendy Watson, ‘Taddeo Zuccaro’s earliest drawings for maiolica’ in Timothy Wilson (ed.), Italian Renaissance Pottery. Papers written in association with a colloquium at the British Museum, London, 1991, p. 182, fig. 1.
2. In 2012 Timothy Clifford re-attributed these drawings to Federico Barocci, but this view has not been widely accepted by Old Master Drawing scholars, see Timothy Clifford, ‘Disegni di Taddeo e Federico Zuccari e dei loro contemporanei per la maiolica’ in Marino Marini (ed.), Fabulae Pictae, Museo Nazionale del Bargello May-September 2012 Exhibition Catalogue, Florence, 2012, p. 106. The Musée du Louvre drawing (inv. no. 10322) was published by John Gere, Dessins de Taddeo et Federico Zuccaro, Musée du Louvre, XLIIe Exposition du Cabinet des Dessins, Paris, 1969, p. 25, where he suggested that the Louvre’s drawing was ‘presumably a design for the reverse of a commemorative medal which was never struck’, but Wendy Watson convincingly argues that this was almost certainly not the case, and no medal with Zuccaro’s design was struck, see Watson, ibid., pp. 177-178.
3. This idea is noted by Wendy Watson, ibid., p. 179.
4. See J.A. Gere, ‘Taddeo Zuccaro as a designer for Maiolica’ in Burlington Magazine, No. 105, July 1963, pp. 306-315.