Basin with a Rampant Lion
Artist
Unknown
(Spanish (Andalusian) Sculptor)
DateFirst half of the fifteenth century
MediumMaiolica (tin-glazed earthenware)
Dimensions14 3/8 in. (36.5 cm)
ClassificationsCeramics
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN7142
This basin features a rampant lion at its center. Facing left, it is rendered in blue pigment on a ground of leafy tendrils and flower-like motifs in metallic luster, further filled with parallel and spiral lines. The rim is adorned with foliage motifs in luster alternating with the Arabic inscription “al-afiya” in blue pigment. The reverse is adorned in metallic luster, with a daisy-like motif in the center and an area of diagonal hatching amidst several concentric circles along the edges. Rampant lions, eagles, griffins, and lily flowers are frequently found on the faces and reverses of Valencian ceramics of the fifteenth century. At first, they were not real coats of arms but simply heraldically inspired patterns that could not be attributed to a particular family. However, with the strengthening of commercial ties with other European regions, particularly Tuscany, over the course of the fifteenth century, pieces with truly identifiable heraldic motifs became more common. The present dish closely resembles a dish at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the only difference being that the “al-afiya” inscriptions on the Victoria and Albert piece are, highly unusually, replaced by a Latin inscription stating, “when you eat and drink, think of the poor.”1 The moral connotations of this inscription associate this dish with the one bearing the “Ave Maria Gratia Plena” inscription discussed in the entry for cat. no. 88. This type of dish, especially its reverse ornamentation, is close in style to Valencian production, which was very much geared towards export to other Christian nations. It was certainly because of the prominence of its Islamic inscriptions that Molinier first attributed this dish to a Malaga workshop in his 1889 catalogue of the Gavet catalogue.
On View
Not on view
First half of the 16th century
First quarter of the 15th century
