Maiolica Collection

Wine cooler with a story from Roman history

Durantino (alias Fontana) Guido

Urbino, c. 1550 - 1560

48.cm (width); 22.5cm (depth)

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

The deep trilobed basin, which has three satyr-mask handles and three lion-paw feet, is of the form called in the Renaissance and to the present day a rinfrescatoio, and was used as a wine-cooler. It seems to have been introduced into Urbino maiolica (perhaps from silver, though no surviving silver example is known) by around 1540 and became a focal object in large table services.

Several columns of soldiers march through a rocky landscape. On a fictive sheet of paper on the side is the inscription:
picciol colle il Roma[no] susidio tiene
ma bruto ardito e saggio il mo[n]te assale
grave infamia

Lent from a private collection.  LI192.3

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