Visualizations – IDEA Art/e

IDEA Ceramics is dedicated to the study of Isabella d’Este’s maiolica “credenza” or service of dishes. Though little studied by scholars today, maiolica was a popular type of earthenware in sixteenth-century Europe. This type of ceramic was fired at a low temperature and covered in a tin glaze that created a white ground for colorful narratives and personal emblems. IDEA Ceramics reunites the surviving twenty-three individual maiolica dishes from Isabella’s credenza for study. Isabella d’Este’s maiolica dishes no longer can be viewed as a single service, and are now divided among museums and private collectors across three continents. By viewing all twenty-three dishes together, researchers have a better sense of service as a whole, in which the individual dishes, painted narratives of Ovid and Virgil, read like pages in a book.

Isabella d’Este & Art

The art collections of Isabella d’Este Gonzaga, marchesa of Mantua, demonstrate important themes of the Renaissance: possessing the ancient world through the collection of antiquities, demonstrating erudition and virtue through the acquisition of classical narratives, and fashioning an identity through portraiture and personal emblems. Isabella’s accumulation of paintings and art objects increased her cultural capital among the aristocracy.¹ Her collecting also reflected her humanist education as a child at the court of Ferrara, enhanced the prestige of the Gonzaga court in Mantua, and facilitated political and social opportunities for her children.

A Desire for Antiquities

Isabella’s letters reveal a longing for ancient art objects and sculptures. She regularly expressed urgency about acquiring antiquities to agents in Rome.² In 1506, Isabella negotiated with the Gonzaga court painter, Andrea Mantegna, to acquire his prized bust of Faustina the Elder when the artist was in need of funds.³ A few years later in 1511, Isabella purchased an ancient bust of Plato from Venetian artists, Giovanni and Nicolò Bellini.⁴ A bust of Octavian, an onyx vase, a Venus given by Cesare Borgia, and a Cupid attributed to the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles were also documented in her collection.⁵ Isabella displayed the Praxitelean Cupid next to a Sleeping Cupid by Michelangelo in order to compare the ancient and modern sculptures.⁶

When Isabella d’Este could not acquire a truly ancient sculpture, she turned to Pier Jacopo Alari, better known as Antico. He created statuettes in gold and bronze for her. Subjects included the Spinario and Hercules and Antaeus. Cast in 1519, Isabella’s Hercules and Antaeus was marked with an inscription of her ownership.

D / ISABEL / LA / M MAR
(Divine Isabella, Marchesa of Mantua)

These sculptures could be held and examined closely, and, thus, scholars have considered how these small works demonstrate the interactive nature of Renaissance art collecting and reception.⁷ (Continue reading)