MAJOLICA FIGURE OF ST. ANDREW Urbino, Fontana or Patanazzi workshop, ca. 1570–80. Hollowed-out body. Modeled as a bearded saint crowned with a yellow halo, holding his characteristic attribute, a cross, in his left arm, dressed in a tunic in green, ocher brown, blue, and yellow. H 35.5 cm. Minor restorations. Provenance: Private collection, Lugano. The sculptures from the majolica workshops of Urbino and other Italian majolica production centers of the 15th to 17th centuries, which included secular subjects in addition to saints and the Virgin Mary, are far less numerous than majolica tableware. Saint Andrew had been very popular in the Italian Marche region (Urbino) since the late 15th century. This is evidenced by various churches dedicated to him in the vicinity of Urbino. The relic of the saint's head came to Italy in 1460 from Patras in Greece (his birthplace), shortly after Patras fell under Turkish rule. In a solemn procession starting in Ancona, through the Marche and Umbria, the relic was finally accompanied to Rome, to its final resting place in St. Peter's. A figure similar in type and style, a St. Jerome, from the Patanazzi workshop in Urbino, ca. 1575-1600, is now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (Inv. No. F 2528), see "Il secolo d'oro della maiolica. Ceramica italiana dei secoli XV-XVI dalla raccolta del Museo Statale dell' Eremitage" (Exhibition Catalog, Faenza), 2003, Cat. No. 97.