"Sacred and Profane Beauty". Deruta Renaissance Maiolica
Frieze Masters, Londres, 2017
Frieze Masters, London, 2017, was the occasion of a “solo” show of maiolica produced by the workshops of Deruta (Umbria) between the second half of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century.
Named 'Sacred and Profane Beauty. Deruta Renaissance Maiolica’, the exhibition aimed to present an important page of the Deruta Renaissance ceramics preserved today in prestigious private collections. A riot of shapes, colors, decorative motifs and iconographic repertoires testify very well to the rich and profitable dialogue that the manufactures derutesi had with the Umbrian painting of the period, mainly the famous Pietro Vanucci, so-called il Perugino, but also a profound reflection on the history of collecting and its attention to ceramics. A production whose artistic and artisan expression has characterized and still characterizes the local economy.
Exceptional drug ewer belonging to the “Testa di Moro” group dated 1501.
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Deruta
Inscribed with a pharmaceutical inscription: “MELE.VIOLATO” (“miele di viole”), and dated 1501. It bears a coat of arms with the acronym “PAM” o “PAQ” crowned by a cross. This piece belongs to a group of rare and fine pharmaceutical all painted with a maure-head. The other example also from the Sprovieri is today in the collection of Cassa di Risparmia. One must link it to the lustred example dated held in the collection of the British Museum, London.
Private collection
