Skip to main content

Dish: a Turkish Lancer: C.100-1927

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.

Object information

Current Location: Gallery 7 (Courtauld)

Titles

Dish: a Turkish Lancer

Maker(s)

Pottery: Mancini Workshop (Possibly)

Entities

Categories

Description

Dark buff earthenware, the front tin-glazed; the reverse probably slip-coated or tin-glazed before application of honey-yellow lead glaze. Painted in dark blue, green, yellow, and orange.
Shape 61. Circular with sloping rim, upturned at the edge and wide deep well, standing on a footring in which there are two holes for suspension at the top.
In the well, a mounted Turkish lancer gallops to the left. He wears a high-crowned turban and a long gown with a wide falling collar. A scarf or pennant streams out behind him. The landscape background has a low horizon, and the right half of the sky is dark blue and the left half is white. The rim is divided by radial stripes into six panels containing alternately scale pattern and a foliate scroll with formal flowers and fruits. A yellow band encircles the edge. On the back, inside the footring, there is a blue zigzag resembling an M or W with an extra stroke, crossed by a diagonal line, and outside the footring, two blue spirals.

Notes

History note: Unknown

Legal notes

F. Leverton Harris Bequest

Measurements and weight

Diameter: 40 cm
Height: 9.5 cm

Place(s) associated

  • Deruta ⪼ Umbria ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1926) by Harris, Frederick Leverton

Dating

16th Century, Mid
Renaissance
Circa 1525 - 1555

Note

Polychrome display dishes with borders of rays dividing panels of scales and formal plants were in production in Deruta by the early 1520s, and continued until at least the beginning of the 1560s. The earliest known example, datable by the arms of Pope Hadrian VI (1522-3) is in the British Museum, and the latest, bearing those of Pius IV (1559-65) is in the Musée Ariana, Geneva. A border of floriated scrolls occurs on a dish with the arms of Clement VII (1523-34), dated 1531, and floriated scrolls with rays and scale panels on a dish with the arms of Cosimo I de'Medici and Eleonora of Toledo (married 1539), at the Musée national de la Renaissance, Écouen. Dishes decorated in the well with equestrian Turks may have been introduced at Deruta about the time of the repulse of the Turks from Vienna in 1529. They were also executed with different border patterns. The borders of rays dividing panels of scales and formal plants also occur with different central subjects, a few of which are dated, such as a man shaving an ass, dated 1556, in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Almost identical polychrome dishes with similar marks on the reverse are in the British Museum, and MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst), Vienna. Another, with two spirals on the back, is in the Musée Civico, Pesaro. Further equestrian Turk dishes were cited in Poole, 1995, p. 200 (see Documention). Equestrian Turks also appear, but less frequently, on Deruta lustred dishes, for example, in the Wallace Collection, London (III A 44), the Petit Palais, Paris (S.2439), and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (D.45, acq. 1880). In 1935 Bernard Rackham, attributed this dish to Giacomo Mancini. More recent scholars have considered that a less cramped crossed M mark on the reverse of some Deruta dishes might refer to the Mancini workshop, but no concrete evidence is known to prove this.

School or Style

Renaissance

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Decoration composed of high-temperature colours ( dark blue, green, yellow, and orange) lead-glaze tin-glaze
Front
Reverse

Materials used in production

Earthenware

Techniques used in production

Throwing : Dark buff earthenware, the front tin-glazed; the reverse probably slip-coated or tin-glazed before application of honey-yellow lead glaze. Painted in dark blue, green, yellow, and orange.

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: circular

  • Text: Leverton/Harris/Bequest 1926/M25
  • Method of creation: Inscribed in faded ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: C.100-1927
Primary reference Number: 78668
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Tuesday 23 January 2024 Last processed: Thursday 1 February 2024

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) "Dish: a Turkish Lancer" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/78668 Accessed: 2024-12-25 08:07:34

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/78668 |title=Dish: a Turkish Lancer |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-12-25 08:07:34|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-78668

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/aa19/C_100_1927.jpg"
        alt="Dish: a Turkish Lancer"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Dish: a Turkish Lancer</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...