33A Reverse.
33B Marcantonio Raimondi (Italian, ca. 1470/82-1527/34). Ornamental
panel, late fifteenth-early sixteenth century. Engraving. London,
British Museum, inv. 1873-8-9-758. Photo: © The British Museum.Unusually large plates with wide, shallow wells
were produced in Venice, and both the blue-and-white
enamel on a light grayish blue ground and the reverse
alia porcellana border on the same berettino ground are
typical of Venetian wares.^8 Analogous to the present
work is a group of four small Venetian dishes or bowls
datable to the 1530s and 1540s.^9 These pieces, possibly
part of a single service, share with the Getty plate its el
egant grisaille decoration as well as a similar style: fine
facial features, sharp noses and chins, small mouths, and
dotlike eyes, with objects uncommonly well situated in
space (albeit limited space). In particular, one of these
four displays a male head with an open-mouthed ex
pression of surprise and a cuirass that accentuates the
anatomy of an elongated and twisting male back; these
elements can also be found on the central figure of
the Getty plate.^10
The decoration on the present work is of such high
quality, and the style of painting is so remarkably cur
rent with the prevailing Mannerist tendencies of the first
half of the sixteenth century, that one would wish to at
tribute its design to a contemporary master.^11 Around
the mid-sixteenth century artists Battista Franco (1498-
1561) and Taddeo Zuccaro (1529-1566) both produced
designs for maiolica plates from which several pieces
were commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo II della Rovere
of Urbino (r. 1538-74) and executed by such workshops
as that of the Fontana in Urbino.^12 Although Joseph Mar-
ryat suggested that the Getty plate copies a design by
Franco,^13 Franco's as well as Zuccaro's maiolica designs
emphasize the often complicated placement of figures in
three-dimensional space, an interest almost completely
lacking in the Museum's plate.^14
The Getty Museum's plate is distinguished by its ex
ceedingly mannered and refined painting style. The cen
tral figure is almost astonishingly bizarre, a favorite
effect of Mannerist artists. This figure's expression of
surprise, elongated proportions, and twisted torso that
ends in foliage and leafy scrolls at the thighs and shoul
ders all contribute to its fantastic nature. Also favored by
the Mannerists was an extreme elegance in surface dec
oration, exemplified in the present work by such
details as the elegant drapery along the plate's upper184 Plate with Grotesques