A PAIR OF URBANIA MAIOLICA TWO-HANDLED OVIFORM VASES

CIRCA 1670

Details

Each with winged caryatid terminals and snake handles suspending garlands of fruits, the first painted in polychrome with the Virgin and Child surrounded by musicians, the domed foot inscribed GLORIA IN EXCE, the reverse painted in blue with Christ amongst clouds, the foot inscribed MIAVRESVRG, the second painted in polychrome with the martyrdom of Christ, the foot inscribed DIVI BARTHOLO MAEI MARTVRIVM, the reverse in blue with the Pietà, the foot inscribed MORTEM NOSTRA MORIENDO DESTRV
Each: 32 in. (81 cm.) high
Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 30 September 2014, lot 240.
Lot Essay

This pair of vases are close in style to that associated with Ippolito Rombaldoni (1619-1679), one of the most significant painters producing istoriato in the Marches in the 17th century. Rombaldoni copied prints and his maiolica pieces, like his drawings, are characterised by hatching similar to that seen on engravings. See J. Poole, Italian maiolica and incised slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 303-304, no. 375 for other known pieces by Rombaldoni and a discussion of his style. A small number of signed pieces by Rombaldoni exist, including a plaque painted with the Madonna and Child signed and dated 1670 in the collection of the British Museum, see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, a Catalogue of the British Museum, London, 2009, Vol. II, pp. 589-592, fig. 366.
A series of snake-handled vases similar to the present lot but decorated with allegorical subjects are known, two of which are signed by Rombaldoni, see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, ibid., p. 589 where the authors discuss the fact that these vases may have been a special commission by Conte Federico Ubaldini of Urbania as a gift to Pope Urban VIII, whose birthplace of Castel Durante had been renamed Urbania at his election to the papacy in 1635.1 A pair of similar snake-handled vases dated 1670 are in the collection of the Burghley House Preservation Trust, Burghley House, Lincolnshire. It seems likely that the vases at Burghley and the present pair are either by Rombaldoni himself or the work of an assistant in the same workshop.
1. A snake-handled vase is recorded in Milan and inscribed 'Hipolito Rombaldoni D'Urbania Pinse L'anno 1678.25 genb(gennaio)', see D. Thornton and T. Wilson, ibid., p. 589, note 9. A similar vase is in the MICF, inv. 12983, inscribed 'Hipollito Rom(b)ldoni D'Vrbania Pinse', see ibid., note 10.