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

29B

Marcantonio Raimondi (Italian,

ca. 1470/82-1527/34) after

Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520).

The Abduction of Helen,

ca. 1510-20. Engraving. Vienna,

Graphische Sammlung Albertina,

inv. 1970/425.

(fig. 29B). This image was apparently a favorite of the

artist and his peers, including Nicola da Urbino, since it

appears with slight variations on numerous plates of the

early sixteenth century. The consistency of these Ab­

duction of Helen scenes indicates that instead of copying

the engraving freehand, the artists may have used a tem­

plate of some sort—probably either traced or punched

with holes, through which powder was forced—to trans­

fer the image to the ceramic plates.^8

Other versions of this subject either signed by or at­

tributed to Xanto include two plates in the Musee du

Louvre, Paris (inv. Cluny 915, OA 1839);^9 one formerly in

the Schlossmuseum, Berlin (probably destroyed);^10 one in

the Colocci Honorati collection, Jesi;^11 and one formerly

in the Pringsheim collection, Munich.^12 Another plate of

the subject formerly in the Pringsheim collection is

attributed to Nicola da Urbino;^13 and two others, for­

merly attributed to Xanto, are now given to the so-called

Painter of the Apollo Basin.^14 In addition, numerous

plates by Xanto copy portions of the engraving rather

than the entire scene.^15 Many of these plates bear in­

scriptions that are identical or nearly so to that on the

Getty's plate, which is among the largest and most faith­

ful to the original engraving.

Notes

1. "Trionfo d'amore," bk. i, 11. 136-38: "Seco e '1 pastor che mal il suo bel
   volto /miro si fiso, ond'uscir gran tempeste,/e funne il mondo sottosopra
   volto."


2. See no. 30 below. For information on Xanto Avelli see the various and
   informative publications by Julia Triolo, including "The Armorial
   Maiolica of Francesco Xanto Avelli" (Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State
   University, 1996); "Francesco Xanto Avelli's Pucci Service (1532-1533):
   A Catalogue," Faenza 74 (1988): 37-44, 228-84; an< 3 her entries in the
   forthcoming Castello Sforzesco, Milan, catalogue.


3. These sonnets are presently in the Vatican Library; see Cioci 1987. For
   other examples of Xanto as a literary amateur see Wilson 1990, 321-27,-
   Holcroft 1988, 225-34.


4. See Mallet 1984, 384-402.


5. According to a plate dated 1530 in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan
   (inv. M232).


6. Wilson 1987A, 52; see also Mallet 1987, 33.


7. Interestingly, these documents indicate that the workshop heads in­
   volved in the dispute included Guido Durantino and Nicola di Gabriele
   Sbraghe (Negroni 1986, 18, no. 33).


8. For further information on this topic see Hess 1999, 14-19; Rondot
   1994 , 18-49; Talvacchia 1994, 121-53; Petruzzellis-Scherer 1980,
   321-71.


9. Chompret 1949, 2: figs. 988, 995; Giacomotti 1974, nos. 856, 866.


10. Ballardini 1938 , 2: no. 191.


11. Ballardini 1938, 2: no. 41.


12. Sale cat., Christie's, London, February 28, 1994, lot 130; Ballardini 1938,
    2: no. 192, fig. 182; Falke 1914-23, 2: no. 267, pi. 138.


13. Sale cat., Christie's, New York, October 6, 1993, lot 24.


14. One in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. c. 2232-1910;
    Rackham 1940, 1: no. 634; 2: pi. 100), and the other in the Museo Inter-
    nazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza ("Accessioni al Museo," Faenza 32
    [1946]: pi. 19a). For this new attribution see J. V. G. Mallet's forthcoming
    publication of a paper given in Gubbio.


15. See, for example, Poole 1995, 340-42, no. 392.

Plate with the Abduction of Helen 169