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

27B Luca Signorelli (Italian, ca. 145 o -15 2 3). Four Struggling Nude Figures,

ca. 1500. Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. 1794. Photo: © Reunion des

Musees Nationaux.

27 c Plate depicting the Judgment of Paris. Faenza, ca. 1525. Tin-glazed
earthenware. Paris, Musee du Louvre, Cluny inv. 2438. Photo: © Reu­
nion des Musees Nationaux.

copied. Although the Alexander and Diogenes plates

seem to be reworkings of the composition by the same

artist, pieces in other groups—such as the Judgment of

Paris and the Diana and Actaeon plates—appear to be by

different hands. On stylistic grounds, the Getty example

can be grouped most convincingly with the smaller of

the two Judgment of Paris plates in the Louvre (fig. 27c).

Given that various pieces bear dates ranging from 1524

to 1535 and that four of them bear four different coats of

arms,^20 these twelve plates belonged to a number of dif­

ferent credenze. Together with the Getty plate, the ex­

amples in Faenza and Braunschweig display identical

reverse decoration with the central swan, indicating that

these three, although probably not painted by the same

person, were undoubtedly made in the same workshop.

Notes

1. Byron 1813.


2. Fortnum 1873, 479.


3. Rackham 1940, 1: 99-100.


4. Liverani 1939, 3-9; Ravanelli Guidotti 1998, 351-55, no. 86.


5. Rackham 1940, 1: 81-84, 86; 2: nos. 258-65, 270, pis. 41-42.


6. For example, the tondino of 1525 with Casa Pirota mark in the Musee
   de Ceramique, Sevres, inv. MNC 24734 (Mallet 1996, figs. 1-2).


7. Bacou 1968, no. 1 o; I would like to thank Laurence Kanter for help­
   ing make this important connection by bringing this drawing to my
   attention.


8. Baldini 1966, pi. X; La Coste-Messeliere 1975, pis. 70-144. Bringing to­
   gether this drawing with the Getty plate confirms a connection between
   Signorelli and Faentine maiolica production in the very early sixteenth
   century. This connection was first 'minted at" as early as 1907 (Solon
   1907 , caption to pi. VI); the quote is from Rackham (1951, 106-n), who
   also discusses this connection; see also Verlet 1937, 13-184; Wilson
   1987A, 42, no. 45; Massing 1991, 150-56.


9. For further information on this topic see Hess 1999.


10. Watson 1986, 48-49, no. 10.


11. Ballardini 1938, 2: fig. 165.


12. Rackham 1940, 1: no. 297.


13. Chompret 1949, 2: figs. 462, 464; Giacomotti 1974, nos. 335-36.


14. Ravanelli Guidotti 1990, 284-86, no. 146.


15. Lessmann 1979, 29, 99, no. 19.


16. Lepke 1930, lot 155.


17. Falke 1914-23, 2: pi. 94, fig. i8o; Palmer and Chilton 1984, 26.


18. Sale cat., Christie's, London, July 8, 1999, lot 143.


19. McNab 1995, 2: 521-25, figs. 2-3.


20. The plates in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Victoria
    and Albert Museum, London; former Schlossmuseum, Berlin; and that
    which sold at auction in London in 1999.

Plate with Hero and Leander 15 9