Broad-rimmed bowl with Leda and the Swan, c. 1540/1545

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G16

Medium

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 19.9 cm (7 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.347

Artists / Makers

Urbino 16th Century (ceramist) Italian, 16th century

Urbino district 16th Century (ceramist) Italian, 16th century

Image Use

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Inscription

center reverse: giove trasformato / in Cino [Jupiter transformed into a swan]

Marks and Labels

Kann collection labels 27, 197 (now in object folder, NGA Curatorial Records)

Provenance

Maurice Kann [1839-1906], Paris; purchased 1908 with the entire Kann collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); 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.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kann, Maurice
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

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. 49.

Technical Summary

Earthenware, covered front and back with a white tin glaze, with occasional pockmarks. The painting is in blue, yellow, orange, green, brown, gray, black, brick red, and white. On the underside, around the rim, is a ridged molding. On the rim on the front, near the edge, are three kiln-support marks. The rim has been completely overpainted.

Bibliography

1935: Inventory of the Objects d'Art at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, The Estate of the Late P.A.B. Widener. Philadelphia, 1935: 65.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 14, as Urbino, about 1540.

1983: Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 122, no. 6.

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: 228-230, repro. 229.