Plate with Hero leaping to her death from her tower and the drowned Leander; in the center, a shield of arms

1538

Francesco Xanto Avelli

Ceramist, Italian (Rovigo), active in Urbino, c. 1486/1487 - after 1542

Vincenzo Andreoli

Ceramist, Italian

Italian 16th Century

Ceramist

This circular plate is painted with an almost cartoon-like scene showing four people with pale skin around a stream, near the exterior of a tower. At the top of the plate, a nude woman is shown from the thighs up as she falls horizontally from an open window at the top of the tower. Her back, buttocks, and a single breast are exposed to us while a deep red and blue fabric wraps over her far shoulder and around her thighs. Her hands clasp as she reaches her arms forward, and her copper-red hair flies behind her. Her mouth is wide open. Directly below her, at the bottom center of the plate, a man partially wrapped in ruby-red drapery lies on his back in the stream. One arm is flung over his head and the other hangs across his body. He has black hair, and his eyes are closed. On the right side of the plate, a second man stands on the bank of the stream with his body facing us, as he turns his face to our left in profile. He has curly, brown hair, and the eyebrow we can see is furrowed. He wears a knee-length red tunic, and he raises both arms high overhead. Finally, the fourth winged, child-like person stands on the opposite bank, to our left. He is nude except for a quiver of arrows slung across his chest. His babyish body is chubby with small wings between his shoulder blades. He faces the center of the scene and looks up at the falling woman while raising a long torch toward her. The tower is made of parchment-white stones outlined with mustard yellow and black. A shield or coat of arms hangs or hovers just above the center of the plate. It has a rounded top and pointed bottom, and has six gold, tree-like forms against a navy-blue background, all within a scrolling, red frame. The stream winds into the distance between buildings along the banks. Cobalt-blue and sepia-brown mountains line the horizon, and a light brown sun with linear rays sets behind them. The plate is edged with a thin band of golden brown, and there are several chips around the rim. The plate is shown in front of a light gray background and it casts a light shadow to our right.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G10

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (diameter): 26.7 cm (10 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.337

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Louis-Fidel Debruge Duménil [d. 1838], Paris; (Debruge-Dumenil sale, Paris, 23 January-9 February and 4-12 March 1850, no. 1146). Prince Petr Soltykoff [c. 1801-1889], Paris; (his sale, Paris, 8 April-1 May 1861, no. 698, as by Xanto). (Roussel, Paris). Perhaps Baron Achille Seillière [1813-1873], Paris, and Chateau de Mello.[1] Maurice Kann [1839-1906], Paris; purchased 1908 with the entire Kann collection by (Duveen Brothers Inc., London, Paris, and New York); purchased February 1910 by Peter A. B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from the Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, 1942.
[1] Alfred Darcel, "Le moyen age et la renaissance au Trocadéro: XIV: Les faïences italiennes," Gazette des beaux-arts, 2d ser., 18 (1878): 974, mentions a lustered plate with Hero and Leander having been exhibited in the 1878 exhibition, and another plate with "Pyrrhus sauvé," attributed to Xanto, in the collection of "MM. Seillière." These are probably the National Gallery of Art plate and the Metabus and camilla plate at Luton Hoo(Bedfordshire, England, home of the Wernher family collection). The owner was perhaps Baron Achille Seillière, but neither piece was included in his estate sale in Paris, 5-10 May 1890.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • Sixteenth-Century Italian Maiolica; Selections from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and the National Gallery of Art's Widener Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982-1983, no. 53.

2018

  • Sharing Images: Renaissance Prints into Maiolica and Bronze, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018

Bibliography

1847

  • Labarte, J. Description des objets d'art qui composent la collection Debruge Duménil. Paris, 1847: no. 1146.

1935

  • Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 62.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 13, as Urbino (Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo).

1983

  • Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 123, no. 1.

1988

  • Fiocco/Gherardi 1988-1989, 2:580.

1993

  • Distelberger, Rudolf, Alison Luchs, Philippe Verdier, and Timonthy H. Wilson. Western Decorative Arts, Part I: Medieval, Renaissance, and Historicizing Styles including Metalwork, Enamels, and Ceramics. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1993: 210-214, color repro. 211.

Inscriptions

center reverse: 1538 / Leandro in mare / etera ale finestra [Leander in the sea and Hero at the window]

Markings

Kann collection labels 19, 189; octagonal label for an unidentified sale, exhibition, or collection: "2147"; in an old photograph, the number "2(or 0)070" appears painted on the underside of the rim (now in object folder, NGA Curatorial Records)

Wikidata ID

Q62131089

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