DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0399
A FAMOUS BOWL
369
majolica.1 Here the ground is blue, and the Marchesa’s
arms, including the fleur-de-lys which the Este were
privileged to wear, are blazoned in colours on a
shield, supported by putti, while below a troop of
winged boys are represented, with banners in their
hands, and a scroll inscribed with the words, Nec
spe nec metu. Both for elegance of shape and
quality of paste, as well as for the grace of the
painted figures and charm of the whole decoration,
this centre-piece, which once adorned Isabella’s
dinner-table, remains unsurpassed. All of these ex-
quisite specimens are now recognised to be the work
of Nicolo Pellipario of Casteldurante, who lived at
Urbino between 1520 and 1530, and many of them
still bear the monogram of this fine artist, whose
rare merit our Marchesa was quick to discover and
turn to good account.
But fond as Isabella was of fine majolica and
rich stuffs, of elegant costumes and delicate em-
broideries, the love of antiques remained her ruling
passion. Of all her contemporaries none was more
fully dominated by that “ foolish madness,” to which
Zuan Francesco Valier referred, when he sent her
an antique marble head which had just arrived from
Rhodes, and was greatly admired in Venice, although
he fears it may seem a vile thing among the treasures
of the Grotta. Isabella thanked her Venetian friend
in rapturous terms, which made him say that if the
head had been made of diamonds and rubies, she
could not have expressed more gratitude.
Her delight was still greater when, in August,
1536, Cardinal Ercole, the one of her sons who
inherited the most of his mother’s scholarly tastes,
1 Gazette d. B. Arts, xix. 397.
VOL. II.
2 A
369
majolica.1 Here the ground is blue, and the Marchesa’s
arms, including the fleur-de-lys which the Este were
privileged to wear, are blazoned in colours on a
shield, supported by putti, while below a troop of
winged boys are represented, with banners in their
hands, and a scroll inscribed with the words, Nec
spe nec metu. Both for elegance of shape and
quality of paste, as well as for the grace of the
painted figures and charm of the whole decoration,
this centre-piece, which once adorned Isabella’s
dinner-table, remains unsurpassed. All of these ex-
quisite specimens are now recognised to be the work
of Nicolo Pellipario of Casteldurante, who lived at
Urbino between 1520 and 1530, and many of them
still bear the monogram of this fine artist, whose
rare merit our Marchesa was quick to discover and
turn to good account.
But fond as Isabella was of fine majolica and
rich stuffs, of elegant costumes and delicate em-
broideries, the love of antiques remained her ruling
passion. Of all her contemporaries none was more
fully dominated by that “ foolish madness,” to which
Zuan Francesco Valier referred, when he sent her
an antique marble head which had just arrived from
Rhodes, and was greatly admired in Venice, although
he fears it may seem a vile thing among the treasures
of the Grotta. Isabella thanked her Venetian friend
in rapturous terms, which made him say that if the
head had been made of diamonds and rubies, she
could not have expressed more gratitude.
Her delight was still greater when, in August,
1536, Cardinal Ercole, the one of her sons who
inherited the most of his mother’s scholarly tastes,
1 Gazette d. B. Arts, xix. 397.
VOL. II.
2 A