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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 7: Misc. Central and Northern ItalyA Renaissance dinner service for a duchess
A conversation between Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Beth Harris in front of Nicola da Urbino, armorial plate (tondino), The Story of King Midas, c. 1520–25, tin-glazed earthenware, 27.5 cm in diameter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). Created by Smarthistory.
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Video transcript
- [Beth] We're in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, looking at a very special plate that dates from the
time of the Renaissance. When we think about the
Renaissance in Italy we might normally think about
sculptures and paintings but there are beautiful ceramics that are incredibly important from this time period that we should be spending a lot more time looking at. - [Lauren] We're looking
at this very special plate by the artist Nicola da Urbino. He was a very important
Renaissance maiolica artist who worked in the town of Urbino where you had this
important ceramic workshop. - [Beth] Hence his name Nicola da Urbino, Nicola from Urbino. - [Lauren] This particular plate was made for Isabella d'Este who
is the most important female patron of the Renaissance. And what makes it even
more interesting is that it was commissioned by her
daughter Eleonora Gonzaga who was also a really important
woman in the Renaissance. - [Beth] We're talking about
families from very powerful city States in Renaissance
Italy, from Urbino, from Mantua. - [Lauren] This plate gives
us really great insight into art made for these Italian courts in the Renaissance, because
when Eleonora commissioned this for her mother, Isabella
d'Este, she commissioned Nicola da Urbino to
create not just one plate but an entire service of ceramics. We don't know exactly whether
they were used for feasting or if they were just placed
on display in a credenza. - [Beth] This set of more than 20 ceramics is now distributed in
museums across the world. - [Lauren] And the Met
has several of them. We're looking at a particular plate that is showing the musical
contest between Apollo and Pan, but there's also another
plate on display here that's showing revelry and drinking. - [Beth] In fact, this
display of maiolica, this very special kind of
pottery gives us some idea of what the experience
was like of seeing these grouped together on the
credenza, the display cabinet in the villa that these were made for. - [Lauren] The plate is
showing this musical contest between the God Apollo
and Pan, who was a satyr. On the right we're seeing Pan
as he's playing his flutes. And we see Apollo behind him. And then we also see this
other figure who's King Midas, who is judging the musical contest. And then on the left, we see Apollo holding his musical instrument and we see Pan who's now on the ground, his flutes before him and
the musical contest is ended. Apollo has won. In the story King Midas
judges Pan to be the winner. And Apollo gives him the ears of an ass, which we're not seeing here. - [Beth] The idea is that the God Apollo was so self-evidently superior that only someone with an asses ears could have judged Pan to be
the winner of this contest. We have this wonderful story from Ovid, the ancient Roman poet and writer, and from his book, the "Metamorphoses" which was a source that
was used frequently in the Renaissance, through
that we have a demonstration of Isabella and Eleanora's
classical education. - [Lauren] We actually
know that she was not only well-educated but an incredibly important patron of the arts. Showing a scene from Ovid's
"Metamorphoses" would have been a demonstration of that
erudition, of that learning. Other people who were viewing
this would have similarly displayed their own education around knowing the elements of the story. There's a playful element
to this plate as well. - [Beth] The artist has included these personal emblems of Isabella. - [Lauren] We see one, that's
a candelabra on the left. We see on the right a
bunch of lottery tickets that have been grouped together. And then we see musical notations. These are what's called
in Italian imprese, and these are mottoes or personal badges. Using imprese is a sign of her learning because you would have to be in the know, you would have to be educated and asking questions
about what these mean. And we find these across
the different plates even the other ones that we see
here in the Mets collection. - [Beth] And then in the
very center, we have a larger emblem that joins
together the coat of arms of Isabella's family and
her husband's family. So this is a very personal object. - [Lauren] And it was
intended to be handled and looked at, and we have
these incredibly beautiful and fine details, a wide range of colors. It would have been intended
to be picked up and looked at very closely so that you
could study the scene. - [Beth] But we're looking
really at a painting on a plate. Art historians refer
to these as istoriato, this idea of painting history, mythology, these narrative scenes on pottery. - [Lauren] Istoriato ceramics
were actually really important in the early part of the
16th century here in Italy, in part, because of this humanist learning where people were really
interested in Greek and Roman myths and they wanted to have
these conversation starters when they were enjoying feasts at court. - [Beth] And we believe
that these were on display in the villa which was in the suburbs so slightly out in the countryside a little bit less of a formal environment than the official palace in the city. There were gardens, there
were beautiful dining rooms. There was amazing food to be had. We have to imagine this in
a very luxurious setting. - [Lauren] And music and
revelry were important themes in these maiolica. Let's talk about the technique more because what we're seeing here is this beautifully colored plate. We've got lots of blues and oranges and yellows and greens and browns. This was a varied color palette
for this time in ceramics. The artist, Nicola da Urbino was incredibly skilled at painting these. - [Beth] This is not an
easy surface to paint on. It was a surface that
was coated in a glaze that was made out of tin. And the tin absorbed the
pigment very quickly. - [Lauren] Somewhat like fresco painting. You had to be very careful
as you applied your pigment and you had to know
exactly what you were doing and you had to do it
quickly so that you would remember exactly what you were painting on the surface of the unbaked clay. - [Beth] When I look at this, it's so clear to me that
we're in the Renaissance. There's this beautiful
landscape with atmospheric perspective that moves
back into the distance. The figures all move so
naturally and gracefully and interact with one another
in this very easy way. And we follow the narrative very easily. - [Lauren] And even though
this is a classical story, it's ancient Greek, I
love that the landscape in the background looks
like Italian Renaissance or even late medieval buildings. - [Beth] On the lower
right Midas points to Pan, he believes he's the winner
of this musical contest. Apollo peaks out from behind
a tree on the left side, Midas is in the background but Apollo is standing in
this lovely contrapposto. Here we have all of the beauty, the love of the human
body, the love of nature of the Renaissance, but
on a piece of ceramic. Often artists derived the
composition for these from prints. And that is the case in this plate that we're looking at today. - [Lauren] There's actually
a close relationship with print culture and
ceramics at this time. We know for instance,
that Nicola da Urbino and his workshop were looking
to a particular printed text of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
that was printed in 1497. This also relates to
humanist learning at the time where there is this keen
interest in print culture. And of course the Greco-Roman texts that are being printed as well. - [Beth] Here we are in
the early 16th century, the time of Michelangelo,
of Raphael, of Leonardo, but looking at something different, but just as beautiful and important.