GOBLET WITH FLATTENED RIM

Dm. 11,5 cm.
Majolica, blue «berettino» style.
Faenza, anonymous master in Piero Bergantini's workshop, 1529.
Prov.: formerly Heugel Coll.
Condition.: excellent.
Inv.: n. 22019/c.

Inside the wide cavetto is illustrated (istoriato) the story of Marcus Curtius, who flung himself down a ravine which had opened up in the middle of the Roman forum; a group of fellow soldiers crowds around him and, in the foreground, on a rock is the inscription «pro patria», which refers naturally to the young man's sarifice for his country (the story is recounted by Livy); around the scene we find the typical subjects of the ornamental repertoire of Faenza ware in the first thirty years of the 16th century, with trophies and medallions against a blue «berrettino» ground; these same ornaments, combined with the typical Faenza festoon, surround the back of the foot of the goblet, which bears in the centre the inscription «FATA.IN.FAENZA.I.LABOTEGA / DE. Mº.PIERE BERGATIO.M.CCCCC / 1529 ADI 17 DT ZUGNO», that is «made in Faenza in the workshop of Maestro Piero Bergantini, 1500-1529 on the day 17th June».