Enfilade

The programme includes some eighteenth-century offerings; from The French Porcelain Society:

The French Porcelain Society’s Online Symposium
Celebrating John Mallet’s 90th Birthday
7–8 November 2020

J. V. G. Mallet’s achievements in the field of ceramics are many as proved by his copious bibliography. It is however, John’s ground-breaking work in the field of istoriato maiolica of the 16th century and particularly his focus on the most important Renaissance maiolica-painters of the period, which has to be acknowledged as a major factor behind the resurgence of interest in this fascinating type of painting on pottery.

Our international online symposium, over two afternoons, will focus on John’s main area of research, istoriato maiolica or ‘narrative ware’. This extraordinary pictorial language flourished in the lands of the Dukes of Urbino, whose humanist court inspired Baldassar Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier and which was Raphael birthplace. The imagery created in Raphael’s workshop was such a powerful influence on istoriato, that it was once believed that Raphael and his pupils actually painted the wares, leading it to be called ‘Raphael ware’.

Most notable are John’s magisterial articles on Urbino istoriato. Applying the same method that art historians use for painting, he has been able to group stylistically many different istoriato painters, and give names to otherwise unknown important maiolica masters, including: The ‘In Castel Durante Painter’, ‘The Master of the Apollo Basin’, ‘The Milan Marsyas Painter’, and ‘The Painter of the Coal Mine Dishes’. John also has written extensively on the painters active in the workshop of Guido Durantino, around the art of the great Nicola da Urbino, on Francesco ‘Urbini’, on Maestro Giorgio of Gubbio, and on Xanto—one of the most intriguing personalities in the world of ceramics, on whom John organised a ground-breaking monographic exhibition at the Wallace Collection in 2007. His catalogue of the maiolica in the Hockemeyer Collection in Bremen is a landmark of scholarship.

The symposium will give particular emphasis to the relationship between istoriato and graphic sources originating in and around Raphael’s workshop, 500 years after the death of the Urbino master in 1520. Reflecting John’s wide-ranging knowledge and interests in many other fields of ceramics, the symposium will also feature lectures on European pottery and porcelain.

The event is free and open to all, but donations are always appreciated. For more information and registration details, please contact the organiser Dr Elisa Paola Sani at FPSenquiries@gmail.com.

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Maiolica in the Shadow of Raphael
Saturday, 7 November 2020, 16.00–19.00 UK GMT

Welcome: Dame Rosalind Savill, DBE (President, The French Porcelain Society, London)
Introduction: Timothy Wilson (Honorary Keeper, Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford)

• Claudio Paolinelli (Co-curator of Raphael Ware, Urbino), Virtual Tour of Raphael Ware, the Maiolica Show in Urbino Ducal Palace
• David Ekserdjian (University of Leicester), Xanto and Raphael
• Suzanne Higgott (Curator, The Wallace Collection), The Wallace Collection Bathing Nymphs
• Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti (former Keeper, M.I.C., Faenza), Raphaelesque Taste: An Istoriato from an Ancient Italian Collection
• Marino Marini (Keeper, Museo del Bargello, Florence), Un’iconografia raffaellesca su una coppa faentina al Bargello
• Karine Tsoumis (Curator, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto), Portable Worlds: Maiolica in the Serenissima
• Justin Raccanello (Author and Lecturer, London), Raphaelism and Raffaelleschi
• Michael J. Brody (Jefferson University, Philadelphia), A Mythological Dish by Sforza di Marcantonio Dated 1548
• Elisa Paola Sani (Research Fellow, The Courtauld Gallery, London), In the Shadow of Nicola da Urbino

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A Celebration of John Mallet
Sunday, 8 November 2020, 16.00–19.00 UK GMT

Chair: Timothy Wilson (Honorary Keeper, Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford)

• Valentina Mazzotti (Keeper of M.I.C., Faenza), John Mallet, Fundamental Contributions in ‘Faenza’
• Errol Manners, FSA (Author and Lecturer, London), Antoine-Salomon Taunay and Louis, Duc d’Orleans, the Travels of a Chemist
• Francoise Barbe (Conservateur en chef, Département des Objets d’art, Louvre, Paris), French Lead Glazes at the Time of Palissy
• Camille Leprince (Author and Lecturer, Paris), Collecting and Reproducing Raphael Ware in 17th-Century France
• Cristina Maritano (Curator of ceramics, Palazzo Madama, Turin), Raphael on the Pharmacy Shelf: An 18th-Century Ligurian Set
• Roger Massey (Author and Lecturer, London), A Bristol Porcelain Figure in the Schreiber Collection at the V&A
• Raffaella Ausenda (Author and Lecturer, Urbino), Maiolica in the Bossi Collection at the Castello Sforzesco, Milan
• Sir Timothy Clifford (former Director, National Gallery of Scotland), Few Thoughts for John
• Giulio Busti (Honorary Curator, Museo delle Ceramiche, Deruta), Un saluto a John
• John Mallet (Former Keeper of the Ceramics Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London), Collecting for the V&A