MID-16TH CENTURY, URBINO OR PESARO, ATTRIBUTED TO SFORZA DI MARCANTONIO

The present flask illustrates two scenes from classical mythology, the first of which is taken from Hygenus, Fabularum Liber, published in Basel in 1535, depicting Saturn transformed into the guise of a horse to ravish the Oceanid Philyra between figures of Cupid. Saturn is depicted before his transformation with his attribute of a scythe at his feet and a female figure to the right, which may represent Philyra at another stage of the story, or Rhea who discovered the illcit affair. The figures on the reverse show Vulcan forging Cupid's arrows before Venus.

See Wendy M. Watson, Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection (London, 1986), pp. 168-169, cat. no. 67 for a plate attributed to Sforza di Marcantonio and dated 1551. The depiction of the naked Philyra is taken from a print by Marcantonio Raimondi from the I Modi after Giulio Romano, which was used repeatedly by Xanto as a source of inspiration, and the author also discusses a possible connection between Sforza di Marcantonio and Xanto. For another similar plate also attributed to Sforza di Marcantonio see Christina Garbangna, ed., Il secolo d'oro della maiolica, Ceramica italiana dei secoli XV-XVI, della raccolta del Museo Statale dell'Ermitage (Milan, 2003), p. 126, no. 115. A documentary pilgrim-flask painted by Sforza was sold in these Rooms on 18 December 2006, lot 23.