Fontana Workshop
Wine Cooler with Judgment of Pariscirca 1565-1571

Not on view

Large Italian maiolica basin with three-lobed form, viewed from above, decorated with polychrome mythological figures in a landscape, with coiled serpent handles and an orange rope-pattern border

Ceramic dish with trefoil form viewed from above, featuring three cobalt blue handles with gold trim radiating outward. Interior painted with a continuous landscape scene of trees, foliage, and rocky terrain in green, yellow, blue, and brown. White unglazed central well with a small red mark.

Artist or Maker: Fontana Workshop
Italy, Urbino, circa 1510-1571
Title: Wine Cooler with Judgment of Paris
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: circa 1565-1571
Medium: Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Dimensions: 8 × 19 × 19 in. (20.32 × 48.26 × 48.26 cm) Height: 8 in. (20.32 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Stanley Mortimer
Accession Number: 50.42.2
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: Three-lobed basins were among the largest and most ambitious ceramic forms created during the Italian Renaissance. Basins like this one and its mate (50.42.1) were a specialty of the Fontana family workshop in Urbino. Its function was for cooling bottles of wine on a banquet table. The deep container has three lobes and stands on lion’s-paw feet. Three handles end in satyr’s masks with horns that curl up and over the rim. The interior of the bowl depicts the Judgment of Paris, a story from Greek mythology about the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, to which all the gods and goddesses except Eris, goddess of discord, have been invited. After Thetis tosses a golden apple inscribed “to the fairest” into the crowd, Paris, a Trojan prince, becomes the judge of a beauty contest among Venus, Minerva, and Juno, each of whom claims the title. In the version of the story illustrated on this basin, Paris sits at the left and hands the apple to Venus, a fateful choice that leads to the Trojan War. The Judgment scene was copied directly from an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after a design by Raphael (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337058). Marcantonio’s print was famous in its day and, according to Giorgio Vasari, “amazed all of Rome.” No doubt this celebrated image of banqueting and soon-to-be-quarreling gods and goddesses prompted lively conversation as the wine cooler was emptied and the mythological scene was fully revealed to guests.
Selected Bibliography: Keith, D. Graeme. The Triumph of Humanism: a Visual Survey of the Decorative Arts of the Renaissance. San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1977.

Fontana Workshop
Wine Cooler with Judgment of Pariscirca 1565-1571

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Fontana Workshop
Italy, Urbino, circa 1510-1571
Title: Wine Cooler with Judgment of Paris
Place Made: Italy
Date Made: circa 1565-1571
Medium: Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
Dimensions: 8 × 19 × 19 in. (20.32 × 48.26 × 48.26 cm) Height: 8 in. (20.32 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Stanley Mortimer
Accession Number: 50.42.2
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes: Three-lobed basins were among the largest and most ambitious ceramic forms created during the Italian Renaissance. Basins like this one and its mate (50.42.1) were a specialty of the Fontana family workshop in Urbino. Its function was for cooling bottles of wine on a banquet table. The deep container has three lobes and stands on lion’s-paw feet. Three handles end in satyr’s masks with horns that curl up and over the rim. The interior of the bowl depicts the Judgment of Paris, a story from Greek mythology about the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, to which all the gods and goddesses except Eris, goddess of discord, have been invited. After Thetis tosses a golden apple inscribed “to the fairest” into the crowd, Paris, a Trojan prince, becomes the judge of a beauty contest among Venus, Minerva, and Juno, each of whom claims the title. In the version of the story illustrated on this basin, Paris sits at the left and hands the apple to Venus, a fateful choice that leads to the Trojan War. The Judgment scene was copied directly from an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after a design by Raphael (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337058). Marcantonio’s print was famous in its day and, according to Giorgio Vasari, “amazed all of Rome.” No doubt this celebrated image of banqueting and soon-to-be-quarreling gods and goddesses prompted lively conversation as the wine cooler was emptied and the mythological scene was fully revealed to guests.
Selected Bibliography: Keith, D. Graeme. The Triumph of Humanism: a Visual Survey of the Decorative Arts of the Renaissance. San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1977.