Skip to main content

The Death of Aeschylus: C.207-1991

An image of Dish

Terms of use

These images are provided for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-ND). To license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who will discuss fees, terms and waivers.

Download this image

Creative commons explained - what it means, how you can use our's and other people's content.

Alternative views

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Titles

The Death of Aeschylus

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown (Probably)

Entities

Categories

Description

Renaissance maiolica dish on a low foot, painted in polychrome with The Death of Aeschylus.

Dish on a low foot. Earthenware, tin-glazed overall; the reverse pale beige. Painted in dark greyish-blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, and white.
Shape 78 with a slight step in the foot. Circular with shallow upturned sides, standing on a low foot.
The Death of Aeschylus. Aeschylus reclines on the left beside a bush and rocks with an open book on the ground in front of him. An eagle flying above has just dropped a tortoise, which has landed upside down on his head. On the right are rocks and a stream, in the middle, five long-legged, long-necked birds, and a ruin in front of which the Fate, Clotho, sits holding a distaff. In the distance is a ruined rotunda and mountains. The rim is yellow. Inside the foot are two wide yellow bands each between narrow blue. The outside of the foot is yellow, and wide yellow and narrow blue bands encircle its junction with the dish. The back of the dish is encircled by a narrow blue band midway across, and narrow blue and wide yellow by the rim.

Notes

History note: Probably Mrs Bryan Harland; Sotheby's, 20 May 1932, Catalogue of continental pottery, lot 21; William Ridout; Christie's, 13 December 1938, The William Ridout collection of Italian majolica, European pottery, faience and delftware, lot 2; H.S. Reitlinger (d.1950); the Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead, from which transferred in 1991.

Legal notes

H.S. Reitlinger Bequest

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 26.0 cm
Height: 4.3 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Faenza ⪼ Emilia-Romagna ⪼ Italy
  • Forlì ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1950) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Dating

16th Century
Renaissance
Circa 1535 CE - 1550 CE

Note

Faenza or Forli

School or Style

Renaissance

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of high-temperature colours ( dark greyish-blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, and white)

Materials used in production

Tin-glaze
Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Tin-glazing : Earthenware, tin-glazed overall; the reverse pale beige. Painted in dark greyish-blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, black, and white.

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.207-1991
Primary reference Number: 73074
Packing number: EURCER 692
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 18 December 2023 Last processed: Monday 18 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "The Death of Aeschylus" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/73074 Accessed: 2024-11-21 14:26:03

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/73074 |title=The Death of Aeschylus |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-21 14:26:03|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-73074

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa9/C_207_1991_281_29.jpg"
        alt="The Death of Aeschylus"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">The Death of Aeschylus</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>
    

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...