Image
Description
Maker
Culture
Title
Year
Medium
Materials/Techniques
-
Materials
Dimensions
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Diameter: 27 cm (10 5/8 inches)
Signature / Inscription / Marks
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Scratched rather crudely on back, within the footring, presumably after the second firing: APOL../[?]POA. DA / PV[?]B[?]. On recto, the conjoined letters "HH" painted in glaze just to the left of the tree trunk at center and in the grass at lower left of center.
Place
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Urbino; Italy
Type
Credit
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Bequest of Susan Martin Allien
Object Number
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35.703
About
This finely painted plate depicts a scene in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Orpheus, who has spurned the love of women after being eternally separated from his lover, Eurydice, is attacked by angry women who were followers of Bacchus. The subject, a violent battle between sexes, is one of the themes known as amor crudel (cruel love). The unknown artist who painted this plate may have based it on a now lost engraving by the Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. When displayed to guests with other plates of this type, it would have indicated the knowledge and sophistication of the collector.
Scratched rather crudely on back, within the footring, presumably after the second firing: APOL../[?]POA. DA / PV[?]B[?]. On recto, the conjoined letters "HH" painted in glaze just to the left of the tree trunk at center and in the grass at lower left of center.