Plate. Castelli, Fornace di Geronimo Pompei, c.... Lot 29

Plate. Castelli, Fornace di Geronimo Pompei, c. 1670-1680 Majolica. 24 cm diameter. Conservation: very good@@@ falls of glaze at the rim. Our plate was executed by an unknown Castelli master at the workshop of Geronimo Pompei (1635-1691). Painted in the cavetto with a historiated, possibly allegorical scene, it has various types of complementary ornamentation on the brim such as vases and cornucopias with flowers, birds, and insects in flight. At the top we find a bicaudate mermaid-a half-length nude woman holding a scale-like tail in each hand and wearing a pointed crown on her head-at the bottom a naked child with fruits and flowers in her hand. For a majolica of this type see, for example, the shaving cup published by F.G.M. Battistella-V. de Pompeis, Le Maioliche di Castelli. From the Renaissance to Neoclassicism, Pescara 2005, p. 124, no. 123