Shallow bowl

Francesco Urbini (active 1530 - 1537)

Ashmolean Museum

1536

The dish is painted with a head composed of penises. From right to left the inscription reads 'every man looks at me as if I were a head of dicks'. The composition is a parody of the 'bella donna' genre of sixteenth century maiolica which bear portrait heads of girls.

• Medium: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: diameter: 23.2cm
• Art Fund Grant: £100000 ( Total: £240,000)
• ArtFunded in: 2003
• Vendor: Rainer Zietz

Provenance

Sale 'Catalogue d'une jolie collection de majoliques italiennes', Paris, 1855; Baur; Le Carpentier collection, France; Roger Peyrefitte; Peyrefitte sale, Paris 1977; Carlo De Carlo, Florence; sold by his heirs, Venice, 2001; bought by Rainer Zietz and Alain Moatti.

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