Maiolica dish with a young woman

An image of Maiolica. Shallow bowl. Place of manufacture uncertain, possibly Castel Durante or another town in the Marches. Circular with shallow gently curved sides. A bust of a young woman facing front, her head inclined to her left and her eyes cast downwards to her left. Over her blonde hair she wears a turban-like cap which is decorated with orange trophies and has an oval green jewel at centre front. Round her neck she has a string of orange beads and a thin black necklace which disappears between her breasts. Her gown has green and orange sleeves and a dark-blue decolleté bodice with incised decoration and a white edging. Projecting on either side of her head is an elaborately coiled scroll inscribed `DIA/NORA' and decorated with formal plant motifs in dark blue. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall with blue smudges on the reverse. Painted in dark blue, blue, green, yellow, orange, black, and white. Height, whole, 3.0 cm, diameter, whole, 24.5 cm, circa 1525-1540. Renaissance. Notes: The date of manufacture is uncertain. Several features of the dish give rise to fears that it is a nineteenth-century pastiche.

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Maiolica. Shallow bowl. Place of manufacture uncertain, possibly Castel Durante or another town in the Marches. Circular with shallow gently curved sides. A bust of a young woman facing front, her head inclined to her left and her eyes cast downwards to her left. Over her blonde hair she wears a turban-like cap which is decorated with orange trophies and has an oval green jewel at centre front. Round her neck she has a string of orange beads and a thin black necklace which disappears between her breasts. Her gown has green and orange sleeves and a dark-blue decolleté bodice with incised decoration and a white edging. Projecting on either side of her head is an elaborately coiled scroll inscribed `DIA/NORA' and decorated with formal plant motifs in dark blue. Pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed overall with blue smudges on the reverse. Painted in dark blue, blue, green, yellow, orange, black, and white. Height, whole, 3.0 cm, diameter, whole, 24.5 cm, circa 1525-1540. Renaissance. Notes: The date of manufacture is uncertain. Several features of the dish give rise to fears that it is a nineteenth-century pastiche.

Image data

Accession Number: C.111-1927
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/32.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Jaymes Sinclair
Image height: 965 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 780.80kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 32/1

Key words

16th Century beaded beads bella donna blonde blue bowl circular dark blue decolletage decollete dish donna earthenware female Fitz_AA glazed gown hair hairstyle headdress High Renaissance inscribed inscriptions Italian jewelled jewellery lady maiolica necklace painted piatto pottery Renaissance round scrolling scrolls shallow tin-glazed turban woman yellow young

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            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025)
            "Maiolica dish with a young woman"
            Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/image/media-204981 Accessed: 2025-12-27 19:29:43

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            University of Cambridge}}

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