Dish with Female Bust and Inscription

Description The idealized image of a beautiful woman, generally accompanied by an amorous inscription on a scroll, here “Avi Merec Mad,” meaning “I entrust myself to you,” was a popular subject for Renaissance maiolica. Such wares may have been part of a ritual exchange of gifts between husbands and wives. Potters from Deruta, where this plate was surely made, in the 1500s were renowned for their depictions of such subjects. The reverse is painted in a stylized flower pattern known as "petal back." The elaborate monogram including a "B" on the reverse has not been identified. For similar maiolica dishes, see 48.1358 and 48.1741; for more on ‘maiolica,’ see 48.1336.

Provenance J. Seligmann, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1908 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transription] On the front, in the scroll: AVI·MERECºMADº ;[Translation] I entrust myself to you; [Inscription/Signature] On the back, between the footring, in blue, a stylized "B" crossed by a paraph

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1908