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

15

Dish with a Peacock

Feather Pattern

Probably Deruta

ca. 1470-1500

Tin-glazed earthenware

H: 6.3 cm (2 Vi in.)

Diam: 39 cm (15^3 /s in.)

84.DE.103

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

None.

CONDITION

Glaze chips at the center and rim; some repainti

around cracks,- six metal staples along a hairline

crack in the underside.

PROVENANCE

Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818 -18 7 6), Bt.,

K.T., Keir (near Stirling), Scotland; by inheritan

to Lt. Col. W. J. Stirling, Keir, Scotland (sold,

Sotheby's, London, June 18, 1946, lot 79, to

F. D. Lycett-Green [according to sale cat. nota­

tion]),- F. D. Lycett-Green, Goudhurst, Kent (sold

Sotheby's, London, October 14, i960, lot 24, wi

incorrect provenance, to R. Strauss); Robert

Strauss, England (sold, Christie's, London, June

1976, lot 14, to C. Humphris),- [Cyril Humphris,

g London, sold to R. Zietz]; [Rainer Zietz, Ltd., Lon­

don, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1984].

EXHIBITIONS

Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A.

Clark Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of

(^) Art, March 5-May 17, 1987.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rasmussen 1984, 71 n. 1 (attributed to "Faenza
or more probably Tuscany"),- GettyMus] 13 (1985):
h 241, no. 162; Hess 1988A, no. 15,- Summary
Catalogue 2001, no. 354.
,
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21
THIS IS AN UNUSUALLY SHAPED DISH with a small,
slightly bossed center and wide, sloping sides. The potter
pierced two holes in one edge before the first firing. It has
been suggested that such holes served to hang plates for
firing, thereby optimizing available kiln space. It seems
more likely that such holes were used to suspend the ob­
ject for display, although no evidence of either practice
has been found.
Indeed, it is not known whether this piece was used
at the dinner table or simply for show. In fourteenth-
and fifteenth-century paintings, common vessels such as
maiolica jugs occasionally appear on dinner tables or as
flower vases, for example, but the more elaborate ware is
entirely absent, and there is no proof that various depic­
tions of display credenzas portray maiolica rather than
metalwork. Moreover, the possibility that such maiolica
ware might have been used for eating on special occa­
sions cannot be ruled out. Since forks were still a novelty
in the fifteenth century, maiolica would have been largely
preserved from scratches caused by scraping utensils.
This rare plate is brilliantly decorated in dark and
light blue, copper green, bright ocher, and manganese
purple, with a star or flower medallion in the center sur­
rounded by a bold, eight-pointed whorl of stiff, tapering
leaves alternating with peacock feathers. This embel­
lishment is filled in with small blue scrolls, foliage, and
dots. The reverse displays a very unusual pattern of stars,
scrolls, and foliate motifs in ocher, copper green, and
blue on a grayish white lead-glazed ground.^1 The clay
body is of a pinkish buff color.
Very few such works—painted with purely orna­
mental motifs and without coats of arms, animals, pro­
file busts, or pictorial scenes—have survived.^2 Plates,
vases, jars, and jugs decorated in this manner were most
often produced for daily use and thus were frequently
broken or chipped. If this dish were used solely as a dis­
play piece, its function may explain its good state of
preservation.
According to legend, the peacock-feather motif was
commonly found on Faentine ceramics because it was
thought to refer to Cassandra Pavoni (pavona is the Ital­
ian word for peacock), the mistress of Galeotto Manfredi,
lord of Faenza in the late fifteenth century.^3 Although
this motif does appear on ceramics from Faenza, as
confirmed by excavation shards and other documenta­
tion,^4 it also appears on ceramics from other centers
such as Pesaro,^5 Montelupo,^6 Deruta,^7 and Naples.^8 In­
deed, this motif appears to be of Islamic origin and would
have been distributed throughout Italy by Islamic crafts
and craftsmen arriving from the eastern Mediterranean
or North Africa or else via Spain.
Although the shape of this plate eludes convincing
association with a center of production, and the peacock
feather motif appears to be too widespread to be helpful
in attribution, the tapering leaves decorated with incised
scrolls and surrounded by delicate blue tendrils are
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