The Crossing of the Red Sea: C.134-1933

Titles

The Crossing of the Red Sea

Maker(s)

Workshop: Fontana, Orazio (Probably)
Decorator: Patanazzi, Antonio (Possibly)
Printmaker: Salomon, Bernard (After)

Entities

• Dish

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica

Description

Maiolica dish, painted in polychrome, with the Crossing of the Red Sea.

Earthenware, tin-glazed overall; on the reverse, where visible, the glaze is pale cream. Painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, stone, brown, manganese-purple, black, grey, and white. Circular with shallow, curved sides and flat centre. On the underside there are two concentric ribs surrounding the junction with the foot, now missing. The Crossing of the Red Sea. On the right Pharoah, seated in front of his camp, raises his right arm angrily at Moses standing on the opposite shore of the Red Sea. The Children of Israel cross safely in a long procession from right to left while, in the right foreground, the Egyptian forces are prevented from following by the piled-up waves. The yellow rim is decorated with brown-outlined petals with white centres. On the back, five putti fly above clouds, four holding branches and one a drape. The outer rib is surrounded by petals with black centres, outlined in orange-brown on a yellow ground, flanked by diagonal strokes. The yellow rim is decorated with orange petals.

Notes

History note: Probably Grand Ducal Collection, Florence before 1784. Uncertain. Alfred Aaron De Pass (1861-1952), Falmouth

Legal notes

Given by Alfred A. De Pass, 1933, in memory of his son, Crispin (d. 1918).

Place(s) associated

• Urbino ⪼ The Marche ⪼ Italy

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1933-06-15) by de Pass, Alfred A.

Dating

16th Century, third quarter#
Renaissance
Circa 1555 CE - 1570 CE

Note

This dish originally stood on a high foot which has been lost. The front is decorated with the Crossing of the Red Sea or Destruction of Pharaoh and his Army,which is described in the Bible, in Exodus, 14.21-31. The design was probably derived from the woodcut illustration headed `ESOD XIII' by Bernard Salomon in Damiano Maraffi, 'Figure del Vecchio Testamento con versi tos¬cani', Lyon, 1554,the Italian edition of Claude Paradin, Quadrins historiques de la Bible, Lyon, 1553, or later editions which have similar, and additional woodcut illustrations. The dish was probably made in the workshop of Orazio Fontana (d. 1571) in Urbino, and may have been painted by him, or by Antonio Patanazzi (1515-87), who worked in close contact with him, and after his death succeeded him. It was formerly attributed to the workshop of Guido Durantino, the father of Orazio Fontana. The putti or cherubs on the reverse are close in style to angels bearing Instru¬ments of the Passion on the reverse of a standing dish decorated with the Cruci¬fixion after Bernard Salomon’s woodcut in 'Figures du Nouveau Testament', Lyon, 1554, in the Gambier-Parry collection, at the Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, London ( inv. no. O.1966.GP.90). There are also strong similarities between details on the front of that dish, such as the horse's head, and the depiction of costume, which suggest that they were decorated by the same painter. The backs of the two dishes are comparable to the back of one in Wisbech and Fenland Museum (1868.173), decorated with with angels holding musical instruments above clouds, but painted by a different hand on the front with 'Moses striking the Rock', possibly that of the painter of some of the dishes in the set bearing the arms of Guidobaldo II, duke of Urbino (1514-74) made as a gift for the Franciscan, Andrea da Volterra, which are usually attributed to the Fontana workshop. The dish in the Courtauld Gallery has the number 148 on the foot in writing similar to two others in its collection, all of which came from the famous Stowe sale in 1848 , and had previously belonged to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Sani (see 2020 and 2023) found that although the number on the Courtauld’s Crucifixion dish does not match a number in the 1784 inventory of the Medici collection, its description, and those of the other two plates discussed above, correspond with nos. 451, 455 and 452 respectively decorated with ‘The Crucifixion of the Redeemer’, the ‘Crossing of the Red Sea’, and ‘Moses that quench the thirst of the Israelites. Which is broken in part.’ For the subjects of all three dishes to match the inventory makes it unlikely that this is a coincidence, and it is therefore highly likely that the Fitzwilliam’s dish was in the Grand Ducal collection in Florence, until at least 1784.

School or Style

Renaissance