Large Plate with a Pastoral Scene

Description The imagery on this plate celebrates the life of "pastori" (Italian for shepherds) living in close harmony with nature in the mythical ancient land of Arcadia, a mountainous, remote part of Greece. Depicted are a flock of sheep and goats coming around a rock to drink from a stream. Leaning against the rock, a shepherdess, seen from the back, talks to a young peasant whose horse stands at the right. A dog is visible in the foreground. Such scenes used as charming decorative motifs rarely depict specific subjects and reflect the influence of French art of the period in Italy at this period. In the lower right, the platter is marked C & C (or C & G), probably for Carolo Antonio Grue. The rim is dark blue and the back is white. To view the pair to this platter, see 48.1758.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [no. 412]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transcription] On the front, below the tree branch in the lower right, faintly visible: C & C (or C & G?)

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902