Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection

20

Lustered Plate with

a Female Bust

Deruta

ca. 1510-40

Tin-glazed earthenware with

copper luster

H: 8.8 cm(3V2in.)

Diam: 42.8 cm (16% in.)

84.DE.11 0

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

On the scroll, VIVIS ERO VIV[U]S E MORTV[U]

ERO VIV[U]S.

CONDITION

Chips along the rim and base.

PROVENANCE

R. W. M. Walker, London (sold, Christie's, London

July 25, 1945, lot 73, to "Nyburg" [according

to sale cat. notation]); Nyburg; Adda collec­

tion, Paris (sold, Christie's, London, Novem­

ber 20, 1967 , lot 87); [Rainer Zietz, Ltd.,

S

London, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum,

(^) 1984].
EXHIBITIONS
None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rackham 1959, 143, no. 354b, pi. 23 i; Morley-
, Fletcher and Mcllroy 1984 , 52, fig. j- Getty-
MusJ 13 (1985): 243, no. 172; Hess 1988A,
no. 22; Cohen and Hess 1993, 92; Master­
pieces 1997, 11, no. 4; Summary Catalogue
2001 , no. 359.
THE CENTER OF THIS BLUE AND GOLD LUSTERED
PLATE displays an idealized bust of a young woman in
profile wearing a winged headdress and tied bodice; the
background is decorated with a vertical scroll and floral
spray. The whole is surrounded by a garland and an a
quartieh (quartered or sectioned) rim of alternating scale
patterns, formal foliage, and radiating bands. The reverse
is painted with a transparent lead glaze, a less precious
medium than the tin glaze used for the obverse. Before
the first firing, two holes were pierced through the foot
ring, a common feature of plates from Deruta. The func­
tion of such holes is unclear, although they may have
served to hang the object for display on a wall or shelf.
The scroll inscription—which means "When alive, I
shall be among the living, and when dead, I shall [re­
main] among the living"^1 —may be a statement of undy­
ing love,-^2 a memento mori signifying the patron's eternal
love for a woman who had died, depicted as the figure in
profile;^3 or a vanitas subject (the transitory nature of life
had been a dominant theme in Italian art since the
Middle Ages).^4
Idealized female images like the one on this plate, as
well as other subjects on Deruta piatti da pomp a, were
influenced by, if not copied from, the work of certain
painters from Umbria—the region in which Deruta is lo­
cated—such as Perugino (ca. 1450-1523) and, especially,
Pinturicchio (1454-1513; figs. 20B — E). Some of these
plates reproduce images for which no prints exist and
which were located in what were then inaccessible
places, such as the Vatican, so that potters could hardly
20 A Reverse.
112