A Venice maiolica boccale or ewer, circa 1560-70, workshop of Maestro Domenego da Venezia

Collezione Ugolini, Rome;

Sotheby's, London, 2 December 2008, lot 1;

Meeting Art Vercelli, 2 November 2013, lot 618.

The 'Fruit and Flowers' ornament, set against a blue ground, was a popular decorative motif in Venice during the 16th century, particularly associated with Maestro Domenego da Venezia and his workshop and most frequently employed on globular pharmacy vessels. In his manuscript treatise I tre libri dell’arte del vasaio (c. 1557), Cipriano Piccolpasso illustrated designs of “flowers” and “fruits,” noting that “truly there are Venetian types of painting, very charming.” What is extremely rare, however, is the association of the Fruits and Flowers ornament with the form of the boccale, as seen in the present lot. The best-known example of this combination is the boccale bearing the arms of the Renier family, decorated with the myth of Peleus and Thetis, now in the Correr Museum, Venice, and attributed to Maestro Domenego da Venezia, c. 1560–1570.

Related Literature

Caterina Marcantoni Cherido, Timothy Wilson, Andrea Bellieni, Maioliche Italiane del Rinascimento, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Venice, 2022, p. 332, cat. no. 111