Castelli Maiolica, plate with classical ruins, Nicola Cappelletti, atelier.

Castelli maiolica, small plate with spinner and classical ruins, attributed to Nicola Cappelletti, 18th century
Polychrome tin-glazed maiolica (grand feu)
Diameter: approx. 17.5 cm

Decorative Castelli dish painted in maiolica, featuring a rural scene: a young woman dressed in blue sits on a rock and spins with a distaff and spindle, in a quiet and carefully composed landscape. Behind her, a radiant sun breaking through the clouds — often interpreted by scholars as a distinctive visual signature of Nicola Cappelletti (1691–1767) — lights up a twisted oak tree and classical ruins on the right.

The landscape is closely related to a roundel held at the National Museum of Ravenna, also attributed to the Cappelletti workshop, sharing similar architectural and botanical features. As was common in Castelli production, painters often drew inspiration from 17th-century French engravings, especially those by Gabriel Perelle, widely circulated among Italian ceramic decorators.

The colour palette — cobalt blue, copper green, ochre, manganese brown, and orange — is typical of Castelli’s 18th-century grand feu maiolica. At the bottom right, next to the figure’s foot, there is a visible fingerprint left by the painter while the glaze was still fresh. A small firing flaw is also visible on the rim, near the right-hand column.

Back glazed in white, undecorated.