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Maker: Antonio dei Fedeli (Probably)
Maiolica floor or pavement tile, painted in blue, green, yellow and manganese with a hound sejant.
Very pale buff earthenware, tin-glazed white on the upper surface and painted in blue, green, dark yellow and manganese. Square with deep sides. The back has been scooped out to produce three raised concentric rings. On the front, a white hound sejant in profile to the right with its head turned sharply to the right. The hound is outlined and shaded in blue and wears a dark yellow muzzle with a leash of the same colour coiling out behind it. The ground is green with yellow patches and tufts of blue grass. The background is manganese.
History note: From a series of tiles commissioned for the Gonzaga villa at Marmirolo, but also used in Isabella d'Este studiolo in the Castello di San Giorgio at Mantua. Purchased from Durlacher Bros., 142 New Bond Street, London, on 20 February 1920. by F. Leverton Harris (d. 1926).
F. Leverton Harris Bequest, 1926
Depth: 4.7 cm
Height: 23.4 cm
Width: 23.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1927-12) by Harris, Frederick Leverton
15th Century, Late
Renaissance
Circa
1492
CE
-
1494
CE
A white hound sejant (seated), muzzled and leashed, symbolizing fidelity, was a device adopted by Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1395-1444), first Marquis of Mantua. It was one of eight Gonzaga devices pictured on tiles commissioned from Pesaro in 1493 by Giovanni Sforza on behalf of Marquis Francesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519) for his villa at Marmirolo. However, on their arrival at the Castel San Giorgio in Mantua on 1 June 1494, some of them were laid in the studiolo of his wife, Isabella d'Este (1474-1539). The project seems to have been undertaken partly for aesthetic reasons and partly as a measure to rid the room of mice which had been nesting under the floorboards. Apart from this, maiolica pavements were not very practical in domestic situations because their colourful designs were gradually worn away by people's feet. The back of this tile, like that of the others from this pavement, was scooped out to produce three concentric circles. This may have been done to speed the drying of the tiles before firing or to prevent them warping in the kiln.
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( blue, green, dark yellow and manganese)
Front
composed of
tin-glaze
very light buff Earthenware
Accession number: C.61-1927
Primary reference Number: 15553
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2023) "Floor tile" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/15553 Accessed: 2023-12-03 12:07:52
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{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/15553
|title=Floor tile
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2023-12-03 12:07:52|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa19/C_61_1927.jpg"
alt="Floor tile"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Floor tile</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
Accession Number: C.101-1984
Accession Number: C.4-1977
Accession Number: EC.20-1936
Accession Number: EC.19-1936
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