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Plate from a service made for the Peroli family of Urbino
Italian (Urbino or Urbino region)
Renaissance
about 1515–30
Medium/Technique
Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Dimensions
Overall (height vs. diameter): 4.1 x 27.6 cm (1 5/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Harriet Otis Cruft Fund
Accession Number55.931
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
The decoration of this plate imitates that of Chinese blue-and-white porcelains and the Iznik wares of western Turkey, both highly prized at the Italian courts. The coat-of-arms at the center belongs to the Peroli family of Urbino.
DescriptionWide flat rim with three rows of ornament in blue; small deep center with ornament of inner rim around ribboned coat-of-arms flanked by G P, motto above: IN DEO ET IN TE SPERABIS. Glaze imperfect, rim repaired.
InscriptionsIN DEO ET IN TE SPERABIS
ProvenanceAbout 1515/1530, Peroli family, Urbino (original commission) [see note 1]. Chigi-Saraceni collection, Siena [see note 2]. Robert Langton Douglas (b. 1864 - d. 1951), London. 1955, consigned by Ph. M. Stora, Montreal to Raphael Stora, New York (stock no. C-139-2); 1955, sold by Stora to the MFA for $1,600. (Accession Date: November 10, 1955)
NOTES:
[1] The coat of arms on the plate has been identified as that of the Peroli family, Urbino; see Jeanne Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux (Paris, 1974), pp. 236-237, cat. no. 776. [2] In 1955, Raphael Stora was in the possession of two nearly identical plates, of which the MFA purchased one. The other is today at the Museé du Louvre, Paris (inv. OA 9945). These were said at the time of their acquisition to have come from the collections of the Chigi-Saraceni family and Robert Langton Douglas. It is not certain whether they are identical with two plates were sold together at the auctions of Émile Gaillard (Paris, June 8-16, 1904, lots 431-432) and Godfrey Brauer (Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 4-5, 1929, lot 4), from the same service. A similar plate is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. C.2142-1910).
NOTES:
[1] The coat of arms on the plate has been identified as that of the Peroli family, Urbino; see Jeanne Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux (Paris, 1974), pp. 236-237, cat. no. 776. [2] In 1955, Raphael Stora was in the possession of two nearly identical plates, of which the MFA purchased one. The other is today at the Museé du Louvre, Paris (inv. OA 9945). These were said at the time of their acquisition to have come from the collections of the Chigi-Saraceni family and Robert Langton Douglas. It is not certain whether they are identical with two plates were sold together at the auctions of Émile Gaillard (Paris, June 8-16, 1904, lots 431-432) and Godfrey Brauer (Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 4-5, 1929, lot 4), from the same service. A similar plate is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. C.2142-1910).