Historicist vase. Naples, c. 1880

Historicist vase. Naples, c. 1880
Glazed earthenware or majolica with scenes in "istoriato".
Signed: "Gaetano Battaglia".
Presents some lack and restorations
Measurements: 156 x 60 x 50 cm.

This large vase must be included in the production of Gaetano Battaglia (active between 1850 and around 1885), who already worked in the Mosca factory (G. Tortolani, La fabbrica napoletana dei fratelli Mosca: il Bello e l'Utile in Faenza, XCIII, 2007).
Of a truly sustained quality, this colossal ceramic seems close to the works of other important ceramists of the time, such as Minghetti in the last decades of the nineteenth century, especially for its attention to sixteenth-century prototypes (a sign of a taste shared with other kilns of the time, for example in Imola): just think of the famous Bourbon-Montpensier service, which passed through these rooms in 2008, or the production of large formats, often destined for international exhibitions of the time (M. G. Morganti, La fabbrica Minghetti, in La ceramica dell'Ottocento nel Veneto e in Emilia Romagna, Modena 1998, p. 219 passim): recalling, however, that a certain gigantism in the ceramic production of these years was indeed a widespread feature
The large vase presented here is supported on a base of considerable height, both parts made of Italian majolica, glazed by hand and ornamented with "istoriato" decoration, historical, mythological, religious or genre scenes that emerged with great success during the sixteenth century, whose production continues today in some Italian artisan workshops. Specifically, the large bell-shaped vase is decorated with scenes that allude to Classical Antiquity, thus continuing the typology of the large vases made in Urbino, as are the two sculptural handles that stand imposingly on their sides, representing hybrid beings, with human busts and feline faces.
Urbino and Casteldurante were among the main centers of production of historiated majolica; however, there were also numerous factories throughout the country, the most important of which were Faenza, Pesaro, Castelli, Deruta and Caffagiolo. Among the decorative motifs realized throughout the sixteenth century until the first decades of the seventeenth century, the grotesques became, thanks to the frescoes of the Vatican Loggia by Raphael, "raffaelesque" to outline the historiated medallions of dozens of jugs, fountains, dishes often decorated with small sculptures of fantastic animals and caryatids of various shapes.