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Design for an ornamental salt cellar with goats

Maker

(artist)
1499-1546

Title

Date of Production

1524 - 1546

Medium

chalk (black), pen and ink (brown), wash (brown) on laid paper, the upper corners made up

Dimensions

Height: 18 cm
Width: 21.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2011

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

bases (object components)

Label Text

This precise and beautifully finished drawing is one of a group of surviving designs for the same elaborate salt cellar. This vessel was probably intended to be a goldsmith’s piece, admired for its workmanship as much as its function. The goats which support the salt cellar relate to the revived interest in pastoral poetry in sixteenth-century Italy, and the acanthus leaves on the lid and the frieze of dolphins are other popular motifs drawn from classical antiquity.

Provenance

Jonathan Richardson, the elder, London (1665-1745); perhaps his sale, Christopher Cock (London), 22 January - 8 February 1747, any one of 19 lots of untitled Giulio Romano drawings; Sir Henry Hawley; Charles Fairfax Murray, London (1849-1919); possibly his estate sale, 30 January 1920, lot 185 (a book of Italian drawings including Romano); if correctly identified, purchased there by E. Parsons & Sons (London); Marquess of Cholmondeley (1883-1968); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 19 February 1930, lot 4; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Giulio Romano. The Art of Living, Palazzo Te, Mantua, 08/10/2022-08/01/2023

Drawings Gallery Display - Renaissance Modern, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/04/2015-07/06/2015

Special Display - Renaissance drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 29/01/2009-20/05/2009 ...More

Gloria dell'Arte, Philbrook Art Centre, Tulsa, 28/10/1979-27/01/1980

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960

Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance 1400-1600, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, USA, 18/11/1958-04/01/1959 ...Less

Literature

Gloria dell'Arte, Philbrook Art Centre, Tulsa, 1979 / 1980
cat. no. 70

Philbrook Art Centre, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1980, Gloria dell'arte: a Renaissance perspective, 1980
no. 70
ill. on p. 48

Italienische Zeichnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts aus eigenem Besitz, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, 1977
under no. 81, fns 2, 4 ...More

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970
cat. no. 4

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 44

Hartt, Frederick, Giulio Romano, New Haven 1958
no. 64 and on p. 86

Mullaly, Terence, 'Giulio Romano in Mantua' in 'Apollo', April 1958 - 105-111
p. 108
fig. III on p. 105

Furlotti, Barbara , Rebecchini, Guido Giulio Romano, La Forza delle Cose Palazzo Te, 2022-2023
p 126-127 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: centre: thin fleur-de-lis with lower stems crossed in an 'x' (could not find a match in Briquet or Piccard).

Inscription: Giulio Romano

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Jonathan Richardson, the elder (L.2184)

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b)

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