MAJOLICA AMPHORA VASE - The Embden Collection Urbino, Patanazzi workshop, ca. 1580. With double serpentine handles on the sides above ocher mascarons. Painted on both sides with a quatrefoil cartouche in an architectural frame flanked by two cherubs, painted in blue camaïeu in the center with sea creatures, Triton, and Nereid, on a white background with grotesque painting. H 52 cm. Restored. Provenance: The Arlette and Antony Embden Collection, France. Grotesque decoration on Italian majolica first appeared in Faenza in the 15th century and developed into a wide variety of styles (Fiocco-Gherardi, La grottesca faentina, in: Italienische Fayencen, Nuremberg 2004, pp. 199ff). In 2004, John Mallet created three categories within a typology of grotesques (Mallet, Compendiario Grotesque, Nuremberg, 2004, pp. 181-197). The grotesques on a white ground, as used by Raphael in 1515–19 for the Vatican loggias and in the Villa Madama in Rome, were masterfully reproduced in the workshops of Urbino, from the 1560s by the Fontana family and lastly, in a standardized form, from 1580 in the Patanazzi workshop. It is obvious that the neighboring workshops of Casteldurante and Pesaro, and subsequently other more distant Italian production sites. such as Deruta and Montelupo, also took up this popular style around 1600–50. A vase signed “Pisa” from 1600 (Mallet 2004, p. 185) and an apothecary jar signed “Roma Fecit” (Musée du Louvre, Majolique, 1974, p. 434, No. 1299) confirm the widespread distribution and popularity of this type of decoration from Tuscany to Lazio. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *, i.e. VAT is charged on the sum will be refunded to Purchasers providing a validly stamped export declaration.