Current Location: Gallery 6 (Upper Marlay): case 3, shelf A
Maker(s)
Painter:
Master of the Speckled Birds
(Probably)
Entities
Categories
Description
Maiolica plate with a broad rim, painted in polychrome, with a putto riding a sea monster, surrounded by a symmetrical design of grotesques, masks, swags, heads, scrolls, and trophies.
Earthenware, tin-glazed overall. Painted in dark blue, green, yellow, orange, and white. Shape 54. Thickly potted and heavy for its size.
The central medallion contains a putto riding a sea monster reserved in a yellow ground. The sides are decorated with bianco sopra bianco scales and a row of beading over blue and orange bands. On the rim, reserved in a dark blue ground, is a symmetrical design of coloured grotesques incorporating winged heads, speckled birds, masks, swags, military trophies, and foliate scrolls, surrounded by a narrow repeating border of pairs of chevrons alternating with three beads. The edge is yellow. On the back, there is an orange asterisk with arrows pointing inwards between each ray, surrounded by two rows of radiating blue petals between blue concentric bands. The outer petals are larger than those in the inner row and have double outlines. The petals are transversely striped in blue and the spaces in orange.
Notes
History note: Baron Albert von Parpart; Cologne, Heberle, 20-25 April, 1884, lot 913. Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, Paris. Kurt Glogowski; Sotheby's, 8 June 1932, Catalogue of the well-known collection of important Italian majolica, also bronzes and statuary, velvets, textiles and embroideries, fine Oriental rugs, & c. the property of Herr Kurt Glogowski of Berlin, lot 35.
Legal notes
Purchased with the Glaisher Fund.
Measurements and weight
Diameter: 23.5 cm
Height: 2.8 cm
Acquisition and important dates
Method of acquisition: Bought
(1932-06-08)
by
Sotheby's
Dating
16th Century, Early
Renaissance
Circa
1510
CE
-
1520
CE
Note
In 1995 this dish was attributed to Siena or Faenza, but Erani (2002) attributed dishes with the speckled bird motif to a painter working in Faenza in the early 16th century on the basis of sherds found there, and named the painted the Master of the Speckled Birds
School or Style
Renaissance
People, subjects and objects depicted
Components of the work
Decoration
composed of
high-temperature colours
( in dark blue, green, yellow, orange, and white)
Materials used in production
Earthenware
Techniques used in production
Tin-glazing
: Earthenware, tin-glazed overall. Painted in dark blue, green, yellow, orange, and white.
References and bibliographic entries
Related exhibitions
Identification numbers
Accession number: C.26-1932
Primary reference Number: 73801
Glaisher additions number: Gl. Add.44-1932
Stable URI
Audit data
Created: Saturday 6 August 2011
Updated: Monday 25 March 2024
Last processed: Tuesday 2 September 2025
Associated departments & institutions
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
