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

25

Armorial Dish with the

Flaying of Marsyas

Nicola di Gabrielle Sbraghe

(or Sbraga), known as Nicola da Urbino

(ca. 1480-1537/38)

Urbino

Mid-i520s

Tin-glazed earthenware

H: 5.7 cm (2lA in.)

Diam: 41.4 cm (i6^5 /i6 in.)

84.DE.117

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

None.

CONDITION

Broken and repaired, with breaks generally

confined to the top half of the piece; overpainting

in small areas of the landscape to the left, in

bianco sopra bianco, and above the head of the

putto on the right side.

PROVENANCE

Ralph Bernal, London (sold, Christie's, London,

March 5, 1855, lot 1767, to "Wareham" [according

to sale cat. notation] for Baron Gustave de

Rothschild),-^1 Baron Gustave Samuel James de

Rothschild (1829-1911), London,- sold, Christie's,

London, April 12, 1976, lot 179, pi. 13; [Rainer

Zietz, Ltd., London, sold to the J. Paul Getty Mu­

seum, 1984].

EXHIBITIONS

None.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Morley-Fletcher and Mcllroy 1984, 65, fig. 8;

GettyMusf 13 (1985): 243, no. 175; Hess 1988A,

no. 30; Cohen and Hess 1993, io; Masterpieces

(^) 1997, 22, no. 14; Summary Catalogue 2001,
no. 364.
THE WELL OF THIS LARGE ARMORIAL PLATE displays a
coat of arms on a shield held by two putti surrounded by
bianco sopra bianco decoration. The wide rim is ele­
gantly painted with two mythological scenes of musical
contests, both of which involve Apollo: the competition
between Apollo and Pan and the flaying of Marsyas. The
palette consists of blue, ocher, copper green, grayish
green, yellowish green, yellow, brown, brownish orange,
black, and opaque white. A white glaze ground covers
the reverse, which is otherwise undecorated.
This plate was painted by arguably the most talented
and celebrated maiolica master of the Cinquecento,
Nicola da Urbino. The artist has been identified thanks
to a handful of pieces that bear his signature or mono­
gram: a coppa painted with a seated king, dated 1521
(Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage inv. R 363);^2 a plate
fragment with a scene inspired by Raphael's Parnassus
(Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. OA 1244);^3 a plate dated
1528 with a scene inspired by Raphael's Martyrdom of
Saint Cecilia (Florence, Museo Nazionale, Palazzo del
Bargello);^4 a plate with the Old Testament subject of
Joseph and His Brothers (Novellara, Santo Stefano);^5 and,
perhaps, a plate with the scene of an animal sacrifice in
the British Museum, London (inv. MLA 1855, 3-13, 23).^6
According to archival documents, Nicola seems to be a
man known as Nicola di Gabriele Sbraghe (or Sbraga),
the only potter recorded in Urbino whose name and
dates of activity correspond to those of the artist we have
come to know as Nicola da Urbino.^7
25A Reverse.
144