Urbino majolica tondino representing a scene of the Italian history. 16th

Small dish in majolica of Urbino with polychrome decoration "a istoriato" representing a scene of the Italian history: three naked men near a river* of which one with the tended arm showing the warriors hidden behind the trees. Background of mountainous landscape with factory in the distance on the right.
Circa 1535-1545.
Diameter : 23,8 cm.
Glued in many pieces.
Provenance: Collection C. Cucci Collection, Rimini. Adda Collection (Rackam, Catalogue of a Private Collection, London 1959, n° 439, pl. 187 a).
The decoration reproduces the engraving of Mark Antony after Michelangelo for the figures and Lucas of Leyden for the landscape. *Michelangelo's subject was the Battle of Cascina, an obscure episode in the war between Florence and Pisa in 1364: it was summer and a large number of soldiers were bathing in the Arno, and the enemy surprised them. The alarm is given too late, the soldiers do not have time to dress, they run to their weapons, they are splendid in their action but none will survive.
Cf. pour un plat avec un décor similaire, - Les grimpeurs lustré à Gubbio par Maestro Giorgio, 1531. Musée du Louvre, acquisition 1861, ancienne collection Giovanni Petro Campana OA.1538. - Reproduit également : Françoise Barbe, Majolique, l'Age d'or de la faïence italienne au XVIe siècle, n° 93 p. 130 pour le même sujet, Ed. Citadelles et Mazenod, Paris 2016. Dans Jeanne Giacomotti, Catalogue des majoliques des musées nationaux, décor similaire avec lustre rouge n°844 page 260 et 261, Editions des Musées Nationaux, Paris 1974.
- Gaetano Ballardini, Corpus della Maiolica Italiana, Fig. n° 7 provenance : collection Adda (Rackham, cat. of a Private Collection, Londres, 1958, n°439, pl. 187a). - Dora Thornton and Timothy Wilson, Italian Renaissance Ceramics, volume I, n° 188 page 320 pour deux figures de même style à grande échelle, également tirées du carton de la bataille de Cascina, sur une assiette aux armes du Cardinal Bembo (1470-1547), The British Museum Press, London 2009.