CIRCA 1540-45

Details

AN URBINO MAIOLICA TONDINO
CIRCA 1540-45
Painted with Alpheus pursuing Arethusa in a wooded landscape, Alpheus to the left and Arethusa reclining before him, bathing in the river, Diana appearing in a cloud, Cupid above, a town and mountains in the distance between the trees, within a blue line and ochre band rim, the reverse inscribed Retrufa te / Alfeo (small restuck chip to rim at 10 o'clock, two minor rim chips, slight flaking to glaze around edge of well and to rims)
8¾ in. (22.1 cm.) diam.

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Lot Essay

This plate depicts the myth, as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses, of the rivergod Alpheus who fell in love with a young nymph Arethusa as she bathed in his waters. As he pursued her she appealed to help from the goddess Diana who shrouded her in a cloud and then turned her into a stream to allow her to escape.

For an Urbino salt cellar painted with the same subject and incorporating similar compositional elements, see Johanna Lessmann, Italienische Majolika, Katalog der Sammlung, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, Brunswick, 1979, p. 267, no. 314, and also the plate sold in these Rooms on 27-28 November 2012, lot 21.

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