i2-i, 73);^22 the sacrifice of Iphigenia (Ecouen, Musee de
la Renaissance, inv. Cluny 1863);^23 the death of Achilles
(New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 84.3.2J,-^24
and an allegorical scene with Calliope and a youth
(Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, inv. 26.
348).^25 Five other pieces with scenes of Saint George and
the Dragon, Perseus and Andromeda, the Brazen Bull of
Phalaris, Cygnus changed into a swan, and an uniden
tified subject are in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edin
burgh.^26 A final plate with the Rape of Europa, whose
present whereabouts are unknown, was formerly in the
Damiron collection, Lyons.^27 Subjects drawn from
Ovid's Metamorphoses—and loosely based on the illus
trations to the 1497 Venice edition of that book^28 —pre
dominate on the Calini service. The inclusion of the
Brazen Bull subject from the first-century moralizing an
ecdotes of Valerius Maximus (available in Italian at the
time) and the thirteenth-century Golden Legend tale of
Saint George and the Dragon,^29 makes a unified icono-
graphic program for the Calini service elusive.
An intriguing subject for further research involves
the possibility that a group of individuals from Brescia
and Mantua, linked by family and politics, might have
helped to spread Nicola's fame and expand his patronage
in the early 1520s. (It would not have been unusual for
them to discuss the appeal of maiolica table services
decorated with beautiful painting and intellectually
stimulating iconography, along with other topics of
artistic and humanist interest.) Certainly we know that
during this period Nicola produced services for two Man-
tuans (Isabella d'Este Gonzaga and Federico Gonzaga),
for one Brescian family (the Calini, heirs to the Gambara
family),^30 and for the marriage of a Mantuan man (Va-
lente Valenti, who was given an important concession by
Francesco Gonzaga in 1518) to a Brescian woman
(Violante Gambara who, like Isabella d'Este, was a
woman of letters). It is interesting to note that the Man-
zoli fragment belonging to Nicola's final service from
this period ended up in the collection of the counts of
Gonzaga of Novellara, possibly passed on by a member of
the Manzoli family to a Gonzaga on the transfer of the
title of patriarch of Alessandria.^31Notes- Bohn 1857, 185, no. 1767.
- Kube 1976, no. 58.
- Giacomotti 1974, no. 829.
- Conti 1971A, no. 16.
- Liverani 1985, nos. 4-6, pi. 125; Wilson 1987A, 44-45, 49, no. 62;
Palvarini 1994, 10-17. - Wilson 1987A, 50, no. 63.
- Darcel 1864, 181; Berardi 1984, 17 n. 9; Negroni 1985, 15-20; Mallet
1987, 284-86. - For an examination of the artist's life and work see, in addition to the
works cited above, Rasmussen 1972, 51-64; Wilson 1987A, 44-51;
Palvarini 1994, 11-12. - Mallet 1998, 286.
- Wallen 1968, 95-105; Negroni 1985, 13-20.
- Examples from this service are reproduced in Chambers and Martineau
1981, nos. 131-33, 135-36, 138; Rasmussen 1989, 110-11, no. 66; for
the dating of this set see Mallet, "The Gonzaga and Ceramics," in
Chambers and Martineau 1981, 40. - Also called the Ridolfi Service. Wallis 1905; Mariacher 1958, 8-27;
Cherido 1986, 73-79. - Palvarini 1989-90, 151-64.
- Palvarini 1994, 10-17.
- Mallet, "The Gonzaga and Ceramics," in Chambers and Martineau
1981 , 40; see also examples reproduced as nos. 194-95, 197. - The arms include a ladder, whose rungs are called scalini in Italian. The
word becomes calini when pronounced with a Brescian accent that
drops the initial "s" sound in words where the "s" is followed by a con
sonant (I am grateful to Brescian architect and historian Valentino Volta
for his information regarding this and other things Brescian). For
identification of these arms see Ravanelli Guidotti 1985A, 394-99; for
a discussion of the Calini family see Schrattenhofen 1927, 243-57; and
for the postulation that this service may have been executed for Luigi
Calini on the occasion of the 1525 birth of his first son, Muzio Calini,
see Watson 1986, 112-14. F°r further biographical information, see
Spreti [1928-35] 1969, 2: 246, s.v. "Calini"; Dizionario biografico
i960- 725, s.v. "Calini." - The woodcuts are reproduced in Wallis 1905, 39, 51, figs. 16, 22.
- Mallet 1981, 175-78, in particular, no. 133.
- For a discussion of architecture in Nicola's work see Rackham 1945,
144-48; for a general examination of architecture painted on maiolica
see Bernardi 1980. See also Manara 2000, 83-101. - Renaissance artists often replaced the ancient aulos (reed flute) men
tioned in the legend with its contemporary counterpart, the zampogna
(bagpipe) (Winternitz 1959, 187-89). - The woodcuts are reproduced in Wallis 1905, 39-40, figs. 16-17.
- Wilson 1987A, no. 53.
- Giacomotti 1974, no. 820.
- Rackham 1928B, pi. 3D.
25. Watson 1986, no. 45.
26. Curnow 1992, 59-63, nos. 62-66. Except for the Getty Museum's plate,
all the Calini pieces are illustrated in Rackham 1928B, pis. 1-4.
27. Sale cat., Sotheby's, 1938, lot 57; Rackham 1937B, 256, fig. 9.
28. See, for example, the comparisons made by Rackham 1928B, pi. 3D.
148 Armorial Dish with the Flaying of Marsyas