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Source Description
The central field of this dish depicts the profile bust of a man with a Roman style haircut wearing a fillet and facing towards the left. He appears to be looking intently at a plant with bare branches, perhaps meditating on the cycles of life and death. The profile itself suggests the painter was looking at the proifles of emperors on Roman coins. The ‘grotesque’ designs that decorate the rim are painted in blue, ochre, yellow, and copper-green, and were influenced by the wall paintings in ancient palaces rediscovered underground, seemingly in grottos, in the decades around 1500. The back of the plate is painted a greenish-yellow glaze; in the center, four lines cross in the middle, and a small “C” is in one of the angles. This dish was likely made in Deruta, a prominent center for maiolica production in the sixteenth century. For other maiolica dishes with Classical profiles, see 48.1317 and 48.1321
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
28956
label
Dish with a Classical Bust
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
28956
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Dish with a Classical Bust
description
The central field of this dish depicts the profile bust of a man with a Roman style haircut wearing a fillet and facing towards the left. He appears to be looking intently at a plant with bare branches, perhaps meditating on the cycles of life and death. The profile itself suggests the painter was looking at the proifles of emperors on Roman coins. The ‘grotesque’ designs that decorate the rim are painted in blue, ochre, yellow, and copper-green, and were influenced by the wall paintings in ancient palaces rediscovered underground, seemingly in grottos, in the decades around 1500. The back of the plate is painted a greenish-yellow glaze; in the center, four lines cross in the middle, and a small “C” is in one of the angles. This dish was likely made in Deruta, a prominent center for maiolica production in the sixteenth century. For other maiolica dishes with Classical profiles, see 48.1317 and 48.1321
provenance
T. B. Clarke [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [no. 632]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1916, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1510 (Renaissance)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Ceramics
dishes
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
7
height
38.3
dimensionsRaw
2 3/4 x 15 1/16 in. (7 x 38.3 cm)
Source extras
cul
Italian Renaissance
inscriptions
[Maker's Mark] On the center back
in blue turned to green
four lines crossing in the middle ; [Inscription] In one of the angles of the maker's mark: C.
med
earthenware with tin glaze (maiolica)
creator_ids
33562
collection_ids
REN
exhibition_ids
2506
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
a4615ea2a4e834cf
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
429cbaa16ff240f9
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no