A DEVOTIONAL PLAQUE, DERUTA, GIACOMO MANCINI WORKSHOP, SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY DEVOTIONAL PLAQUE, DERUTA, GIACOMO MANCINI WORKSHOP, SECOND HALF 17TH CENTURY in majolica terracotta painted blue, yellow, green, orange and brown on a whitish ground with touches of gold lustre to highlight the frame and the Madonna's mantle; 43x34 cm Provenance Finarte, Milan, 10 December 1986, lot 35; Semenzato, Florence, 28 November 1988, lot 73; Florence, private collection Comparative literature G. Busti, F. Cocchi, Devotional and votive plaques in G.C. Bojani, Il lavoro ceramico , Perugia 1998, p. 213 n. 6; G. Busti, F. Cocchi, Museo Regionale della Ceramica di Deruta. Ceramiche policrome a lustro e terrecotte di Deruta, Milan 1999, p. 192 n. 82; G. Busti, F. Cocchi, La maiolica rinascimentale di Deruta. Appunti per una storia critica in E.A. Sannipoli (ed.), La via della ceramica tra Umbria e Marche. Maioliche rinascimentali da collezioni private , Gubbio 2010, p. 100 n. 21 The plaque, made from a rectangular mould with a flat-profile jutting frame that is fully glazed on the front, depicts the seated Madonna, half-length, holding the Child leaning on a cushion with one arm, who stretches out his arms towards her, playing with the vel, while the upper part shows a landscape with turreted towns. The iconographic model derives from a marble original by Benedetto da Maiano now preserved in New York in the Blumenthal collection, and was very successful in the 16th century, as witnessed by a conspicuous nucleus of comparative works consisting of the numerous devotional plaques made by Deruta artists in more or less articulated versions between Deruta and Bagnoregio. The literature on the subject is now conspicuous and full of suggestions, and yet an analysis of the published works leads one to assign the work in question to the city of Deruta within the workshop of Giacomo Mancini in the second half of the century. It is precisely the landscape in the background that is echoed, for example, in a plaque with a Madonna and landscape in the background published in the study on devotional plaques by G. Busti and F. Cocchi, or in the one with a Madonna accompanied by a cupid in the bottom right-hand corner, but with a landscape of a turreted city that is very reminiscent of the one depicted in ours. It is precisely the landscape that brings us back to the work of Mancini, for whom we suggest seeing in particular the landscape depicted in a dish with a complex mythological scene, or the group of architectures in the background of a cup with Andromache, realised with more delicate colours and stylistic accents by a master hand that is well acquainted with the iconography used in the workshop.