Flagon vase with a spheroid body tapering both upwards, and downwards to a flat base, with a narrow mouth on a small vertical, straight-edged neck.
VENICE, the workshop of Master Domenico di Betti; c. 1560.Polychrome painted majolica with a rich, enveloping floral carpet and with flower and leaf motifs on a blue ground; at each end, two large medallions in cartouche frames portray St. John the Baptist and the Face of a Man.
H. 30 cm/; max. Ø 28 cm. Condition: very good; small crack on upper part. The enveloping decoration, a splendid carpet of flowers, is unique to the workshop of the Venetian Master Domenico di Betti, who was active from the middle to the third quarter of the 16th century. The extremely fine accessory decoration of leaves and flowers on blue cobalt also appears to be a unique feature of Domenico's work. The painterly structure of the medallions surrounded by cartouche frames appearing on either side, on other hand, is a different matter altogether. One of the medallions, painted in virtual monochrome, bears the image of a kneeling saint naked save for a loincloth. The hand belongs to a skilled and sophisticated painter, certainly not the same artist who portrayed a man with a beret on the opposite face of the vase.