An Italian maiolica 'Istoriato' dish, Urbino, circa 1550–1570, probably from the Fontana workshop

with Anthony Emden, Paris.

The scene is based, in part, on an engraving by Enea Vico (1523-1567), catalogued variously as depicting the Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs and the Rape of Hippodamia, and dated versions of the engraving bear the date 1542, such as the example in LACMA, Los Angeles, inv. no.M.88.91.235. A fresco of the same subject was painted by Rosso Fiorentino (1495-1540) in the Gallery of François I at Château de Fontainebleau. A second Urbino dish which uses this source image, painted by Nicola, bears the device of Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540), Duke of Mantua, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, acc. no.C.2246-1910. A third dish, attributed to the 'Painter of the Apollo Basin', dated 1[5]33, sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 January 2016, lot 166. Considering that both the Duke of Mantua and Nicola had died before 1542, and the early date of 1533 in the case of the Apollo Basin dish, the artists must have worked from an earlier, now lost, version of the scene. A fourth dish painted with this scene and attributed to Orazio Fontana, is in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin, Inv. Nr. K 1808.

In ancient Greek Mythology the wedding banquet of Hippodamia and Pirithous, King of the Lapiths, was attended by Eurytus, a drunken centaur. Eurytus sought to kidnap the bride, subsequently igniting a battle between the two races.