Attributed to Francesco Durantino

Christie's London, 5 July 2012, lot 84;

Sotheby's Paris, Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, Volume I: Chefs-d’oeuvre, 11 October 2022, lot 3

The Continence of Scipio is an episode from the life of the Roman general Scipio Africanus whilst on campaign in Spain during the Second Punic War as recounted by Livy. Scipio refused a generous ransom for a young female prisoner, returning her to her fiancé Allucius, who in turn became a supporter of Rome. It was a popular illustration of mercy during warfare.

The design of the present dish is related to the drawings of Battista Franco (Wilson, op. cit. 1987, pp. 128-9, pl. 195 and fig. xxviii; Clifford and Mallet, op. cit., pp. 387-410). According to Giorgio Vasari, Franco was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo II to create sketches for maiolica services working between about 1545 and 1551 and the present dish is possibly from a lost design by him.

Maiolica executed with designs by Franco in the workshop of Guido Durantino have been attributed to the potter and painter, Camillo Gatti, a pupil of Franco (Mallet, op. cit., pp. 292-4). The hand of Francesco Durantino seems a more likely attribution for the present dish, both stylistically and when comparing the handwritten inscription to other attributed pieces, for example the plate illustrated by Wilson (op. cit., 2017, pp. 168-9, no. 65).

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, 'Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica', Burlington Magazine, no. 789, June 1976, pp. 387-410; J.V.G. Mallet, 'In Botega di Maestro Guido Durantino in Urbino', Burlington Magazine, no. 129, May 1987, pp. 292-4; T. Wilson, Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance, 1987, pp. 128-9, pl. 195 and fig. xxviii