A RARE URBINO MAIOLICA ARMORIAL TONDO CIRCA 1523-1540

Workshop of Guido Durantino, finely painted in colours highlighted in white with the story of Apollo and Daphne, the nymph fleeing from Apollo, his right arm outstretched, she sprouting tree roots from her arms and feet, her father, the river God Peneus, reclining on his overturned urn between them, the yellow and terra-cotta ground armorial of a lion rampant bearing a bishop's mitre above 

The Cottreau Collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, auction 28^th/29^th April 1910, not illustrated

Sotheby’s would like to thank John Mallet for his kind assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

M.Brody, ‘Istoriato Maiolica With the Arms of Giacomo Nordi, Bishop of Urbino, 1523-1540’, no.7

See the footnote to the following lot.

The nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, was the first and most celebrated of Apollo's loves. According to Ovid, Cupid, in a spiteful mood, was the cause. He struck Apollo with a golden arrow, the sort that kindles love, Daphne with a leaden one that puts love to flight. The god pursued the unwilling girl and, when she had no strength to flee, she prayed to her father to save her. Whereupon branches sprouted from her arms, roots from her feet, and she was changed into a laurel tree. Apollo with bow and quiver is close behind.