Huge Savona Maiolica Charger Attrib. G.A.Guidobono

A rare huge-scale Italian Savona Liguria Maiolica charger attributed to Giovanni Antonio Guidobono c.1660-1680.

The early blue and white maiolica charger is hand-painted with a mythological scene depicting Neptune with his putti attendants, a robed figure flys through the sky and another dives into the sea. The charger is moulded with a border of shell shaped panels and bosses painted alternating landscape village scenes and putto figures.

The large and smaller clam shell shapes on the rim, and the specific characters depicted within the scene were probably indicative of maritime symbolism which would have had significance to the owners at the time. The putti May indicate that the plate was commissioned to commemorate a union of marriage.

The term ‘maiolica’ refers to tin-glazed earthenware ceramics made during the Italian Renaissance. The light opaque background is overpainted with cobalt blue decoration, visually similar to Chinese porcelain which European factories sought to replicate.

Created in the late 17th Century, the back of the charger bears a monogram mark of a shield over ‘GAG’. This mark was used specifically by Giovanni Antonio Guidobono (1631-1685) the grandfather of Savona maiolica painting.
His sons Bartolomeo and Domenico followed his tradition and were among the principal decorative painters active in Liguria and Piedmont in the late 17th and first half of the 18th century. Bartolomeo and Domenico worked in both fresco and oil and they often collaborated, making their work sometimes difficult to distinguish. They were active in Savona, Turin and Genoa.

Guidobono received a wage to produce royal pottery by Victor Amadeus II (Vittorio Amedeo Francesco; 14 May 1666[1] – 31 October 1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730.

See two related Savona Chargers in the publication by Oreste Ferrari and Guiseppe Scavizzi, “Maioliche Seicento e Settecento”, Milan 1965, pp. 72-73.

Note: historical repair to a hairline crack.