Plate with Pyramus and Thisbe, 1536

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 17

Medium

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Dimensions

overall (height by diameter): 2.5 × 26.1 cm (1 × 10 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)

Accession Number

2015.19.4013

Artists / Makers

Francesco Xanto Avelli (artist) Italian (Rovigo), active in Urbino, c. 1486/1487 - after 1542

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

across center reverse: .1536. / Vedi piramo ,e, Tisbe / isieme l'ombra. / .F.X. / .Roui:(1536 / Behold Pyramus and Thisbe, together in the shade of the tree / Francesco Xanto from Rovigo

Provenance

William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York; bequest 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Clark, William Andrews
Corcoran Gallery of Art

Exhibition History

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. 18.

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

Bibliography

1897: Bode, Wilhelm von, ed. Die Sammlung Oscar Hainauer / The Collection of Oscar Hainauer. [bound as one volume, English and German pages interleaved in one page sequence] Berlin, 1897 and London, 1906: 38, 115, no. 338 (M58).

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 Unpublished manuscript, n.d. (1925): 261, no. 58.

1955: Breckenridge, James D. "Italian Maiolica in the W.A. Clark Collection." The Corcoran Gallery of Art Bulletin 7, no. 3 (April 1955): no. 82.

1955: Von Erdberg, Joan Prentice. "Italian Maiolica at the Corcoran Gallery of Art." The Burlington Magazine 97, no. 624 (March 1955): 74.

1986: Watson, Wendy M. Italian Renaissance Maiolica from the William A. Clark Collection. Exh. cat. (11 venues). London and Washington, 1986: 139-140, no. 54, repro.