Inkstand with sleeping knight, late 15th/early 16th century

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 17

Medium

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Dimensions

overall: 12.2 × 21.7 × 16.4 cm (4 13/16 × 8 9/16 × 6 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2015.19.4045

Artists / Makers

Faenza 15th Century (ceramist) Central Italian

Faenza 16th Century (ceramist) Central Italian

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

front center, shield of arms: Argent, a chevron gules between three mullets pierced azure

Provenance

Émile Gavet [1830-1904], Paris;[1] purchased by William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] Wendy M. Watson’s catalogue (Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection, exh. cat. [11 venues], London and Washington, 1986: 40, no. 4) appends Gavet’s name with a question mark, presumably because this work could not be located in Émile Molinier’s catalogues of the Gavet collection (Collection Émile Gavet, catalogue raisonné précédé d'une historique et archéologique sur les oeuvres d'art qui compose cette collection, Paris, 1889 and 1894). However, Clark collection records, in NGA curatorial files, say Clark purchased the work from Gavet.

Associated Names

Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Gavet, Émile

Exhibition History

1986: Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley; The Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston; The Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum; Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Dayton Art Institute; University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986-1989, no. 4, repro.

2004: Marvels of Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics from the Corcoran Gallery of Art Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh; Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids; Hillstrom Museum of Art, Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota; Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, 9 April 2004 - 18 June 2006, no. 31.

2007: Treasures of European Decorative Art and Sculpture, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 25 August 2007 - 29 March 2009, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1925: Carroll, Dana H. Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue. Part II. Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 266, no. 113.

1955: Breckenridge, James D. "Italian Maiolica in the W.A. Clark Collection." The Corcoran Gallery of Art Bulletin 7, no. 3 (April 1955): no. 6.

1955: Von Erdberg, Joan Prentice. "Italian Maiolica at the Corcoran Gallery of Art." The Burlington Magazine 97, no. 624 (March 1955): 72.