Dish - Majolica - Rara Alzata Compendiario

Rare Compendiary-Style Alzata on a Low Ring Foot in Majolica of a High Period, from the Faenza workshop known as the “Bianchi di Faenza,” dating to the late 16th century and the very early 17th century (circa 1595–1610). Fascinating and rare raised piece in a low-footed, ring-based stance, superb expression of the famous Faenza manufactory in full compendiary style. The work is entirely covered, on both front and back, by the typical white milky tin glaze, dense and opaque, which serves as the spatial protagonist according to Faenza’s renowned late Renaissance stylistic reform. In the center of the cavetto stands the finely drawn figure of a Saint from the Dominican Order, identifiable with certainty as Saint Hyacinth of Onia (canonized in 1594). The Saint is depicted with his unmistakable iconographic attributes: the staff with three lilies in the left hand and the gilded ciborium (piyt) held in the right hand, recalling the miracle of the salvaging of the Blessed Sacrament during the siege of Kiev. The sacred figure and the geometric serial garland adorning the rim are executed with high-fire technique using the classic measured compendiary palette: rapid, synthetic strokes with great painterly freshness in blue, saffron-yellow/orange and outlines in manganese brown.

Condition Report: The object presents in overall decent structural condition, fully coherent with a maiolica artifact of more than four centuries of life. As clearly evidenced by detailed photographic documentation: on the lower edge of the rim there is an old conservational restoration with plaster/gypsum inlay to compensate a gap on the lip. From that point a historic running thread extends (visible on both front and back) and traverses vertically the lower portion of the plate; the crack is currently entirely stable.