1544, PROBABLY URBINO, THE REVERSE INSCRIBED

The scene is derived (in reverse) from the 'Two Armies Ready for Battle' engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after the Master of the Rattrap. The battle of Ravenna was fought on 11th April 1512, between the French and the forces of the Holy League.

For a charger with a related scene derived from the same print, see Jörg Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1989, pp. 166-168, no. 97, which is attributed to the workshop of Guido Durantino, circa 1540. . It has been suggested that the painter of the present lot could be the painter responsible for an armorial service at Brescia, presumably from Urbino, dated 1549. See Clara Stella (ed.), Ceramiche nelle Civiche Collezioni Besciane, Bologna, 1988, nos. 6ba, 7ba and 9b.