Existing comment:
Paul Preaching in Athens
As told in the Bible (Acts 17:16 – 32), Paul visited Athens where he preached against the worship of false idols. The subject was one of those depicted in a set of ten tapestries designed by Raphael in 1515 for the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
The designs were engraved and published in Rome by Marcantonio Raimondi and Agostino Veneziano. Their prints functioned as the main source of knowledge about the tapestries, and only those five compositions that appeared in print were copied onto maiolica.
While some craftsmen duplicated entire compositions on their plates, others placed the figures in new settings and used them to depict different subjects altogether. The painter of the maiolica plate depicting the ancient Roman hero Marcus Curtius pushed the two groups in Paul Preaching in Athens to the sides and inserted Marcus Curtius on horseback in the middle. He is shown about to plunge into a gaping chasm in the Roman forum that was caused by an earthquake. As efforts to fill the huge pit had failed, the priests announced that the gods demanded the sacrifice of a precious victim. Declaring that the courage of Roman soldiers was Rome's greatest treasure, Marcus Curtius leapt into the abyss. |