One of the most delightful creations of the Renaissance are the so-called “bella donna” series of dishes painted with the head of a woman, produced in Tuscany from the 1520s onward. The images are accompanied by a scrolling banderole, usually with a classical name and an adjective such as ‘bella’ (beautiful), ‘graziosa’ (charming) or ‘diva’ (divine). As Wilson notes, some of these dishes were probably made for young men to give as gifts to their lady friends or their intendeds.1

Marfisa, one of the characters created by Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441-1494) in his epic poem of chivalry and romance, Orlando innamorato,is introduced as the Queen of the Amazons with no equal on the battlefield; she is described as valiant and beautiful (fig. 1).2 The character of Marfisa was subsequently taken up in Orlando furioso in 1516, the masterpiece by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), in his remarkable, chivalric epic poem.

Fig. 1 Guillaume Rouille, Marthesia, 1553. Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum, print.

Maiolica painters used several series of historical, legendary and mythological characters, often taking their inspiration from ancient or contemporary numismatics. The present Marfisa Bella dish is particularly attractive for the quality of its design and the power of its color and the importance of its historical subject.

The fashion for festivals developed in Florence in the middle of the 15th century and inspired the taste for ornamented armor created for tournaments, civil and religious festivals and theater. Master earthenware makers adopted designs of ‘fantastic’ helmets for their ceramics, that were disseminated through drawings, engravings and medals.

Fig. 2 Head of a Man in a Fantastic Helmet, circa 1470-80. Florence, print.

Mallet tentatively attributes a related dish in the Gardiner museum, Toronto (G83.1.322) to a workshop in Fabriano3. The reverse of the Toronto dish is painted with eight radiating spirals centered by the letter “P” and the present dish bears the same design centered by the letter “A” (figs. 3 and 4). The designs of the backs of these plates have led scholars to accept a possible locale where these were produced, Fabriano in the Marche, due to another plate with a similar design on the reverse dated 1527 and inscribed Fabriano in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.4

Left: Fig. 3 Dish with the story of Shooting at Father's Corpse, tin-glazed earthenware. Gardiner Museum, Toronto, inv. no. G83.1.322.

Right: Fig. 4 Dish with the story of Shooting at Father's Corpse, reverse, tin-glazed earthenware. Gardiner Museum, Toronto, inv. no. G83.1.322.

RELATED LITERATURE
B. Rackham, “Nicola Pellipario und die Majolika von Fabriano” in Zeitschrift fur bildende kunst 63, 1929-30, pp. 237-40
J. Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux, Paris, 1974;
A. v. Bartsch,The illustrated Bartsch, New York 1978, XXIV, nos. 39-40;
P. Baldan, “Marfisa: nascita e carriera di una regina amazzone", in Giornale Storico della letteratura italiana, vol. CLVIII, 1981, pp. 518-529;
J. Rasmussen, Italian Majolica in the Robert Lehman collects ion, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, pp. 244-245;
E. Ivanova, Il secolo d’oro della maiolica. Ceramic italiana dei secoli XV-XVI dalla raccolta del Museo Statale dell’Ermitage, Faenza 2003, no. 30;
M. Franklin, Boccaccio's heroines : power and virtue in Renaissance society, Hampshire, U.K., 2006;
T. Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017
T. Wilson, The Golden Age of Italian Maiolica-Painting. Catalogue of a private collects ion, Turin, 2019, no. 154

1 Wilson 2018, p. 354
2 M. Franklin 2006
3 J.V.G Mallet, private communication to Timothy Wilson
4 Ivanova 2003, no. 30

We are grateful to Professor Timothy Wilson and Mrs. Greta Kaucher for their invaluable contributions to the research on this entry.