A large polychrome Italian maiolica 'deer hunt' dish, Patanazzi workshop, Urbino, ca. 1579

Dia.: 38,5 cm

The dish was part of a service made for Alfonso II d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara, by the Patanazzi workshop. The cavetto painted with a deer hunt, the broad border with a frieze of grotteschi, a flaming brazier inscribed 'Ardet Aeternum', the Duke's emblem, at the top, a cartouche with a goddess en grisaille at the base.