Renaissance maiolica panel, painted in with a debased form of the Sacred Monogram

An image of Maiolica. Tray/wall panel. Unknown maker, Tuscany, Montelupo. Circular with shallow vertical sides and flat base which has warped in firing. The central medallion contains a debased form of the Sacred Monogram, outlined in orange and reserved in a blue ground, surrounded by a blue zig-zag border. The rest of the base is decorated with four lozenges with a spot at each point linking them to almond, oval and segmental shapes filled with small strokes and stylised stems and leaves. Round the sides there are short oblique strokes between blue bands and a wide blue band on the rim. The exterior is decorated with three blue horizontal bands. Earthenware, tin-glazed on the front and outside wall and dribbled across the unglazed base. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange-red, and black. Height, whole, 4.0 cm, diameter, whole, 36.2 cm, circa 1550- 1600. Renaissance. Notes: Blue geometrical decoration comprising rhomboidal and elliptical shapes usually embellished with spots of green, yellow, orange or red has been attributed to Montelupo and Faenza. It seems likely that these bold designs evolved from earlier knot patterns on maiolica, which in turn seem to be related to those on textiles or Islamic metalwork.

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Maiolica. Tray/wall panel. Unknown maker, Tuscany, Montelupo. Circular with shallow vertical sides and flat base which has warped in firing. The central medallion contains a debased form of the Sacred Monogram, outlined in orange and reserved in a blue ground, surrounded by a blue zig-zag border. The rest of the base is decorated with four lozenges with a spot at each point linking them to almond, oval and segmental shapes filled with small strokes and stylised stems and leaves. Round the sides there are short oblique strokes between blue bands and a wide blue band on the rim. The exterior is decorated with three blue horizontal bands. Earthenware, tin-glazed on the front and outside wall and dribbled across the unglazed base. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange-red, and black. Height, whole, 4.0 cm, diameter, whole, 36.2 cm, circa 1550- 1600. Renaissance. Notes: Blue geometrical decoration comprising rhomboidal and elliptical shapes usually embellished with spots of green, yellow, orange or red has been attributed to Montelupo and Faenza. It seems likely that these bold designs evolved from earlier knot patterns on maiolica, which in turn seem to be related to those on textiles or Islamic metalwork.

Image data

Accession Number: C.189-1991
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/27.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Katie Young
Image height: 778 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 840.50kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 200
Fnumber: 27/1

Key words

16th Century blue circular earthenware Fitz_AA geometric geometrical glazed Italian Late Renaissance leaves lozenge maiolica medallions monogram Other Keywords painted plaque Renaissance round sacred monogram tin-glazed tray wall panel

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            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Renaissance maiolica panel, painted in with a debased form of the Sacred Monogram"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-1762618222 Accessed: 2024-11-05 23:38:40

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