Urbino cup, Patanazzi workshop, last quarter of... Lot 13

Urbino cup, Patanazzi workshop, last quarter of the 16th cent. Majolica. Dimensions: height 5.2@@@ Diameter 27 cm. Conservation: very good@@@ restoration to rim. Cup of typical 16th-century style, i.e., low, smooth concave, resting on low foot. On the recto, full-surface, in a rustic landscape, are depicted the allegorical figures of autumn and winter, as is also specified by the legend on the verso, painted on two registers and in capital letters, "AVTVNO/ AND LUVERNO," enriched with two squiggles, while around the wall are drawn threads in orange-yellow. Painted in full polychrome. Singular historiated scene, offering a different theme from the usual profane or biblical repertoire of Urbino majolica of the second half of the 16th century, although there is no lack of allegorical themes at times. Very interesting is the iconography of the Autunno, a figurine of a young man, which recalls that of Bacchus, being depicted seated on a barrel with vine leaves in his hand and on his head, while below a putto collects the wine gushing from the barrel itself. More canonical, on the other hand, is the allegory of winter, personified in the figure of an old man warming himself next to a blazing pile Stylistically, the two figures manifest the characters of the works produced by the Patanazzi family from 1580 onward: bill of trees, physiognomy of the two protagonists, rocky landscape in the background@@@ all elements that give works like this pleasant liveliness of the scene dropped into a bucolic setting