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The Influence of Raphael
Unlike his contemporary Michelangelo, Raphael (1483 – 1520) fully embraced the new medium of print. By collaborating with a team of printmakers, which included Marcantonio Raimondi and Marco Dente, Raphael oversaw the production of many engravings that spread the knowledge of his elegant designs, as well as his fame and influence. Indeed, prints after Raphael were by far the most important models for Italian ceramics. His designs for frescoes, tapestries, and prints appear on sixteenth-century plates, bowls, flasks, and wine-coolers with such frequency that some nineteenth-century collectors referred to maiolica painted with narrative scenes (istoriato) as "Raphael ware."
While the works displayed in this room demonstrate the widespread and enduring influence of prints issuing from Raphael's workshop, they also highlight the pottery painters' sometimes ingenious approach to copying and repurposing. Some compositions were faithfully translated onto the surface of the plate, while others were altered, excerpted, reversed, or even combined with printed designs by other artists. The work of the talented maiolica painter Francesco Xanto Avelli (1486 /1487 – after 1542), in particular, is distinguished by a remarkably inventive cutting and pasting of figures to create new works of art. |