An Italian maiolica dated istoriato dish, 1545, probably Francesco Durantino, perhaps in the workshop of Guido di Merlino

Gubbio, Palazzo Ducale, La Via della Ceramica tra Umbria e Marche, June 2010 - January 2011, no. 3·21.

E. A. Sannipoli et al., La Via Della Ceramica Tra Umbria e Marche, Maioliche Rinascimentali da Collezioni Private, Gubbio, exhibition catalogue, Città di Castello, 2010, pp. 244-245.

The Continence of Scipio is an episode from the life of the Roman general Scipio Africanus whilst on campaign in Spain during the Second Punic War as recounted by Livy. Scipio refused a generous ransom for a young female prisoner, returning her to her fiancé Allucius, who in turn became a supporter of Rome. It was a popular illustration of mercy during warfare.

The design of the present dish is related to the drawings of Battista Franco as illustrated by T. Wilson, Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance, 1987, pp. 128-9, pl. 195 and fig. xxviii and discussed by T. Clifford and J.V.G. Mallet, `Battista Franco as a Designer for Maiolica', Burlington Magazine, no. 789, June 1976, pp. 387-410. According to Giorgio Vasari, Franco was commissioned by Duke Guidobaldo II to create sketches for maiolica services working between about 1545 and 1551 and the present dish is possibly from a lost design by him.

Maiolica executed to designs by Franco in the workshop of Guido Durantino have been attributed to the potter and painter, Camillo Gatti, a pupil of Franco, see J.V.G. Mallet, `In Botega di Maestro Guido Durantino in Urbino', Burlington Magazine, no. 129, May 1987, pp. 292-4. The hand of Francesco Durantino seems a more likely attribution for the present dish, both stylistically and when comparing the handwritten inscription to other attributed pieces, for example the plate illustrated by T. Wilson, Italian Maiolica and Europe, Oxford, 2017, pp. 168-9, no. 65.