A Documentary Venetian Renaissance Dish in The British Museum

Author(s): Dora Thornton

Source: Journal of Glass Studies , 2009, Vol. 51 (2009), pp. 76-85
Published by: Corning Museum of Glass

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/24191230

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 A Documentary Venetian Renaissance
Dish in The British Museum
Dora Thornton

tian glass in The British Museum origi- cratic lineage but also his official position as
THE MAGNIFICENT
nated with the bequest madecollection
by Sir Felix princeof Vene-
of Rhodes. this ofway,
The Knights St. Johnso
had as to record not only his aristo
Slade in 1868.1 It contains many treasures, in- been formed as a Christian crusading military
eluding a number of important 16th-century ar- order in Jerusalem around 1048, and moved to
morial enameled glasses. Many of these glasses Rhodes in 1310. Rhodes remained their head
can be dated by their heraldry, making them quarters until they lost it to the Turks the year
documents for the history of the subject. after Del Carretto's death in 1521.4
One outstanding piece in the bequest is a foot- Del Carretto was the son of the marquis of
ed dish enameled with the arms of Fabrizio Del Finale, near Genoa. He first came to notice in
Carretto, grand master of the Knights of the Or- the defense of Fort St. Nicholas during the siege
der of St. John on Rhodes from 1513 to 1521 of Rhodes against the Ottoman Turks in 1480.
(Fig. I).2 The arms at the center of the dish are He served as grand admiral of the Knights of
in red, white, and gold, "quarterly one and four, St. John from 1509 to 1513, and he was elected
gules, a cross argent, 2 and 3, bendy of twelve grand master on December 15, 1513. He Con
or and gules."3 It was customary for the grand tinued to serve in that capacity until his death
master of the order to quarter his arms with on January 10, 1521.5 During his time as grand
those of the Knights of the Order of St. John in master, Del Carretto was closely linked with

Acknowledgments. In preparing this article, I was helped by
two British Museum colleagues: the conservator Sarahi Naidorf
and the research scientist Stefan Röhrs, whose unpublished pa
per "The Identification of the Enamelling Technique Used on a
16th-Century Venetian Tazza," Department of Conservation
and Science Research Report AR 2008-20, The British Museum,
2008,1 draw upon here. I am also grateful to the owners of two
related pieces in a private collection for kindly allowing me to
discuss them and to illustrate one of them here. David White
house arranged for me to visit The Corning Museum of Glass
and to handle related pieces in the collection. I am grateful to
him and also to William Gudenrath and Warren Bunn for their
assistance. I also thank Hazel Forsyth of the Museum of Lon
don; Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, now director of the Glas
museum Hentrich in Düsseldorf, for his thoughts and comments
on this dish and its importance; and Aileen Dawson, Rachel Rus
sell, David Saunders, Jeremy Warren, and Rainer Zietz for their
suggestions.
1. On Felix Slade and his bequest to The British Museum,
see Hugh Tait, "Felix Slade (1790-1868)," The Glass Circle
Journal, no. 8, 1996, pp. 70-87; Aileen Dawson, "Franks and
European Ceramics, Glass and Enamels," in A. W. Franks,
Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum, ed.
Marjorie L. Caygill and John F. Cherry, London: the museum,
1997, pp. 200-229, especially p. 210; and Alexander Nesbitt,
Catalogue of the Collection of Glass Formed by Felix Slade,
London: Leo Wertheimer & Co., 1871.
2. For a brief biography and bibliography, see T. Bernardi in
Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, no. 36, Rome: Istituto della
F,nciclopedia Italiana, 1988, pp. 408-410.
3. As identified by Augustus Wollaston Franks in Nesbitt
[note 1], p. 72. For this dish, see also Flugh Tait, The Golden
Age of Venetian Glass, London: British Museum Publications
Ltd., 1979, no. 7. Since the 1990s, when it was found to be
crizzling and deteriorating, the dish has been stored in a con
trolled and monitored environment in The British Museum.
4. Jonathan Riley-Smith, Hospitallers: The History of the Or
der of St. John, London: Hambledon Press, 1999, pp. 89-102.
5. On the role of the grand master, see ibid., pp. 66-69. Coins
minted at Rhodes record his grand mastership there. See, for
instance, a gold ducat of 1513-1521, which shows the grand
master kneeling before the patron saint of the order, Saint John
the Baptist, and Christ Pantocrator. The British Museum, De
partment of Coins and Medals, 1865, 6-26, 28.

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 FIG. 1. Footed glass dish with arms of Fabrizio Del Carretto, grand master
of the Order of the Knights of St. John on Rhodes, enameled, gilded. Venice
(Murano), 1513-1521. D. 21.8 cm. The British Museum, Slade Bequest, 374.
(Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)

leading Italian intellectuals and scholars, such as various scholarly interests apart from working
the moralist and collector Fra Sabba da Casti- closely together in the defense of Rhodes against
glione. Fra Sabba, who was born into a noble the Turks in 1505-1508 and 1513-1518.7
Milanese family around 1480 and died in Faen- In the defense of Rhodes, Del Carretto em
za in 1553, was also a knight of the Order of ployed the best Italian military engineer of that
St. John. Del Carretto had invested him with time, Basilio della Scala, who had previously
the robes of the order at its headquarters on the worked for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximil
island of Rhodes on August 5, 1505. Fra Sabba ian I.8 Del Carretto greatly strengthened and
refers to Del Carretto as an early mentor and modernized the fortifications of the island—
speaks admiringly of him in his will of 1546.6 which was already one of the most heavily forti
The two men were intimate friends of two Medi- fied citadels in Europe—and his arms, quartered
ci popes, Leo X and Clement VII, and they shared exactly as on the dish, are sculpted on the ram

6. "I was vested in the habit and took on the emblem of a Sabba da Castiglione, Faenza: Stefano Casanova Editore, 2000,
Knight of the military Order of St John of Jerusalem in the prinp. 143. The same phrase is repeated in Sabba's second will, dat
cipality of Rhodes on the fifth day of August 1505, by the hand ed December 11, 1550 (ibid., p. 5). The translation from Sab
of the most reverend and illustrious Frate Fabrizio Del Carret ba's Italian into English is mine.
to, who was then the most worthy Admiral of the said principal 7. Antonietta Paolillo, Fra Sabba da Castiglione: Antiquario e
ity of Rhodes and afterwards, on account of his merits and his teorico del collezionismo nella Faenza del 1500, Faenza: S. Casa
extraordinary qualities, was elected as the most reverend and nova, 2000, pp. 12-21.
illustrious Grand Master of the aforesaid military order. ..." 8. Eric Brockman, The Two Sieges of Rhodes, 1480-1522,
From the preamble of Fra Sabba da Castiglione's first will, dated London: John Murray, 1969, p. 110.
January 11,1546. See Santa Cortesi, ed., I due testamenti di Fra

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FIG. 2. Detail of foot of dish shown in Figure 1, dis
playing enameled and gilded arms of Fra Muzio Co
stanzo of Naples, flanked by his gilded initials "MC. "
(Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)
parts at Rhodes.9 His experience in the siege of
Rhodes in 1480 had taught him to fear another
Turkish attack under the Ottoman Sultan Selim
I. Therefore, Del Carretto sought allies in the
Mamluks and the shah of Persia, and he sent
Sabba da Castiglione as envoy to Pope Leo X
from 1513 to 1518.10 All of his efforts were un
successful, however. The Turks conquered Per
sia in 1514 and then the Mamluks in Syria and
Egypt by 1517, isolating Rhodes. Sultan Selim
died in 1521, the same year as Del Carretto, but
his son Suleiman the Magnificent was to prove
an even more forceful enemy of the Knights of
St. John. In 1522, the Turks laid siege to Rhodes,
culminating in the surrender of the knights on
December 18 of that year and their final depar
ture from the island on January 1, 1523.11
The dish does more than record Del Carretto's
grand mastership. In addition to the arms enam
eled at its center, a feature of many other dishes
of its type, it has a smaller coat of arms enam
eled on its foot, properly described as "azure
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\ \ ?
FIG. 3. Side view of dish shown in Figure 1, highlight
ing two enameled arms and their relative positions.
(Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)
six human ribs argent, on a chief azure a lion
passant or" (Fig. 2). At first, one hardly notices
this detail, although the arms can be read through
the transparent dish (Fig. 3). It would not have
been overlooked by anyone in the 16th century,
however. These arms, like those at the center
of the object, were first identified by Augustus
Wollaston Franks of The British Museum in the
9. For arms and an inscription recording Fabrizio Del Car
retto's restoration of the ramparts and other fortifications on
Rhodes, see Baron de Balabre, Rhodes of the Knights, Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1908, p. 49, fig. 32. Del Carretto's arms, as
enameled on the British Museum dish, are also sculpted over
the door of the inn of the Langue of Italy, with the date 1519,
and over the door of the inn of the Langue of Provence. See
Elias Kollias, The Knights of Rhodes: The Palace and the City,
Athens: Ekdotike Athenon, 1991, p. 130, fig. 107, and p. 134,
fig. 112.
10. For Sabba as Del Carretto's papal envoy, see Paolillo
[note 7], pp. 19-20.
11. Brockman [note 8J, pp. 109-110; Riley-Smith [note 4],
p. 106.
1871 catalog of the Slade Collection.12 They are died in 1547.15 The position of grand prior had
the arms of Fra Muzio Costanzo, a knight of St. also been held by Operti between 1504 and
John, flanked by his initials, "MC," which would 1513, and this, coupled with the similarity of
originally have been gilded. Like Del Carretto, their names and the fact that both had served as
Costanzo came from a distinguished noble fam- grand admiral, may account for the confusion,
ily, although the two men were from Liguria If, as Franks and Nesbitt suggested, Muzio
and Naples respectively. Costanzo had indeed been grand admiral be
The catalog of the Slade Collection records tween 1513 and 1515, it would have explaine
that Costanzo was named grand admiral of the the relationship of the arms on the dish as a gi
Knights of St. John between 1513 and 1515. from admiral to grand master. It would also date
This reflects a confused dating that is also found the dish very closely to 1513-1515. Further r
in other records pertaining to Fra Muzio Co- search has shown, however, that we cannot date
stanzo and his contemporary in the order, Fra the dish that closely, although it was still made
Costanzo Operti. Operti had been Del Carretto's between 1513 and 1521, the years of Del C
lieutenant from his appointment as admiral of retto's tenure as grand master,
the order in 1509 until his election as grand mas- The presence of two coats of arms in this co
ter in 1513. It is hardly surprising that on his figuration may be unique among 15th-and 16th
election as grand master, Del Carretto appointed century pieces recorded in the literature. One
his junior, who was also captain of the Italian commonly finds a single coat of arms, or t
Langue, or national grouping within the order, paired or impaled arms of a married couple, as
as admiral.13 Operti served as admiral only from on a jug from the Hockemeyer Collection in
1513 to 1515, according to official records.14 Bremen, which bears the arms of Philibert of Sa
Much less is known about the career of Co- voy impaling those of his consort, Margaret of
stanzo, whose arms, as Franks thought, are Austria, and which consequently dates to 150
enameled on the foot of the British Museum's 1504.16
dish. Fie served as lieutenant between 1525 and The arrangement of the arms on the dish,
1530 and as grand admiral from 1537 to 1546. with the grand master's at the center and the
Fie was made grand prior of the Knights of St. junior knight's on the foot, strongly suggests that
John in Lombardy and Venice in 1529, and he this object was an official gift from one to the

12. Nesbitt [note 1], pp. 72-73.
13. Del Carretto appointed Fra Costanzo d'Operti as admi
ral "perche vacue per la promotione sua al Magisterio l'Am
miragliato, fu nel medesimo Consiglio a quella Dignitade eletto
il Commendatore di Vercelli, Fra Costanzo d'Operti." See Iaco
mo Bosio, Dell'Istoria della sacra religione et t7/[ustrissi]ma mi
litia di San Giovanni Gierosolomitano di Iacomo Bosio parte
prima, Rome, 1594, p. 507. Vercelli, where Costanzo d'Operti
was formerly commendatore, was known as San Giacomo di
Vercelli, Piedmont. See Aldo di Ricaldone, Templari e gieroso
lomitani di Malta in Piemonte dal XII al XVIII secolo, Madrid:
Instituto Internacional de Genealogia y Heraldica, 1980, p. 723.
14. Fra Costanzo Operti was admiral from 1513 to 1515. See
Robert L. Dauber, Die Marine des ]ohanniter-Malteser-Ritter
Ordens: 500 Jahre Seekrieg zur Verteidigung Europas, Graz:
H. Weishaupt, 1989, p. 317. Operti was Del Carretto's lieuten
ant in 1509, so it was a natural progression (ibid., p. 319). Fra
Costanzo had earlier been the Gran Priore di Lombardia e Ve
nezia. See B. del Pozzo, Ruolo Generale de Cavalieri gierosolo
mitani, Turin, 1738, p. 78; and, for his arms, Fra Marco Celio
Passi, Il Gran Priorato di Lombardia e Venezia, Venice: Grand
Priory of Lombardy and Venice, 1983, endpaper.
15. For Muzio Costanzo's period as grand admiral, see
Dauber [note 14]. For Fra Costanzo's role as the Gran Priore di
Lombardia e Venezia, see del Pozzo [note 14] and Passi [note
14]. Since writing this article, I have been informed by Giovan
ni Bonello in Strasbourg that Muzio Costanzo professed in the
order in 1494. His positions in the order included serving as
commendatore del tempio di Cipro, bali di Santo Stefano from
1530, and prior of Barletta at the time of his death. The date of
his appointment as grand admiral seems to have been incor
rectly reported in most sources as 1537, whereas Bosio [note
13] gives it as 1531, which seems the most authoritative source.
I am most grateful to Giovanni Bonello, and to the marquis de
Piro in Malta, for further information on Muzio Costanzo and
his family.
16. J. V. G. Mallet and Franz Adrian Dreier, The Hockemeyer
Collection: Maiolica and Glass, Bremen: H. M. Hauschild, 1998,
pp. 283-284.

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 s f£r
ten

-f J

FIG. 4. Bernardo Licinio, A Family Group. Venice, 1524 (dated in Roman numerals
at top left). Oil on canvas, H. 123.2 cm, W. 177.3 cm. (Photo: © 2008 The Royal
Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

other, almost certainly from Costanzo to his su on land or aboard the flagship of the order.17
perior, recording ties of political clientage and I imagine that this type of bowl was intended
allegiance. We do not know whether Costanzo for fruit or sweetmeats, as is indicated from de
was based on Rhodes between 1513 and 1521, pictions of such dishes in Veronese's Marriage at
although this is likely because of Del Carretto's Cana (1563) in the Louvre.18 The painting shows
wish to station more than 500 knights there in an intriguing mix of silver and glass vessels,
case of a siege. Nor do we know what role Co which is probably how Del Carretto would have
stanzo had in the order at the time when he employed his set. Bernardo Licinio's charming
commissioned the set to which the dish belongs. family portrait in the Royal Collection in Lon
Until this information is discovered, we are undon (Fig. 4), dated 1524 (close to the dating
likely to be able to date the dish more precisely for the British Museum's dish), shows a metal
within the eight years of Del Carretto's service asfruit dish of almost identical form as a bowl for
grand master.
What we can say is that the dish would have
been considered part of the personal property of 17. Some sense of the splendor in which the grand master
the grand master (knights of St. John were exdined on Rhodes with visiting dignitaries and on board his flag
ship is conveyed by Guillermo Caoursin's account of the siege
pected to supply themselves with the finest fur of Rhodes in 1480 in an illuminated manuscript in the Biblio
nishings, as appropriate for their rank), and itthèque Nationale, Paris, BNP ms. Lat. 6067. See the facsimile
would have been displayed and used in his priedited by Alfonso Garcia Leal and Juana Hidalgo Ogàya, Ma
drid: Bormac S.L., fol. 169r and 186v.
vate apartments for entertaining visiting dig 18. For the relevant details discussed here, see Reino Liefkes,
nitaries and for dining with the admiral, either Glass, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997, fig. 56.

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cherries, apples, and pears. Licinio's painting in
dicates that the form of the Del Carretto glass
dish is very close to that of silver or pewter pro
totypes.19
We can suggest how the dish was made from
an examination of the object itself, and from
what we know of glassworking methods of that
period as investigated by William Gudenrath.20
The dish was half-molded to form the 20 raised
ribs on the underside of the bowl. The body was
blown and shaped, and the folded foot was then
formed by adding a second bubble of glass and
working it with jacks. After reheating, the rim
was not folded, but the sides were given a cylin
drical shape. When the vessel had been annealed,
FIG. 5. Detail of the enameled and gilded arms of
gold leaf was applied, using gum arabic and
Fabrizio Del Carretto at center of dish shown in Fig
water as an adhesive. (Wear on the dish enables
ure 1. (Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)
us to see the marks left after the gilding had dis
appeared, as on Costanzo's initials on the sides
of his arms on the foot.) After the enamel deco of London in 1989, which is now in the Muse
ration had been completed and dried, the object um of London.23 In both cases, the wreath at
was gradually reheated in a kiln to nearly the the rim can be closely compared with the wreath
point of softening. A pontil was attached to the around Del Carretto's arms on the dish, which
foot of the dish, and the object was reheated in is now so worn that it can barely be discerned.
the furnace in order to fuse the enamels. In do The shield of arms (Fig. 5) was created using
ing so, the walls of the vessel became thoroughly several layers of enamel and pigmented lines. A
softened. The dish was then withdrawn, and it
was rapidly rotated and tooled simultaneously
so as to produce its final form and diameter.
19. Lucy Whittaker and Martin Clayton, The Art of Italy in
The enamel and gilding at the center of the the Royal Collection, Renaissance and Baroque, London: Royal
dish are extremely worn, and the red areas are Collection Publications, 2007, cat. no. 71. I am grateful to the
Royal Collection for permission to publish this painting here.
grainy and patchy, probably because they were 20. See the photo sequence in Hugh Tait, Five Thousand
underfired.21 This portion of the object was ex Years of Glass, London: British Museum Press, 1991, pp. 235
amined by microscope in the conservation sec 237, demonstrating the techniques used to make a similar dish
in the Slade Bequest. For a thorough explanation of the process
tion of The British Museum to confirm that the
of enameling glass vessels of this period and style, see William
enamel was fired. This examination revealed the Gudenrath, "Enameled Glass Vessels, 1425 B.C.E.-1800: The
Decorating Process," Journal of Glass Studies, v. 48, 2006, pp.
arrangement of successive gilding, enamel, and
23-70, esp. pp. 54-57.
pigment layers, as well as the two types of gild 21. For technical reasons as to why the enamels on shields at
ing employed in decorating the dish. The ring the center of dishes like this one were unlikely to fuse adequate
ly, see Dwight P. Lanmon and David Whitehouse, The Robert
around the center was gilded with gold leaf,
Lehman Collection, v. 11, Glass, New York: The Metropolitan
while the laurel wreath was painted on top of Museum of Art, and Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Univer
this and the gilding was etched through to cre sity Press, 1993, p. 30; and Gudenrath [note 20].
22. Tait [note 3], no. 19; idem [note 20], p. 158, fig. 199.
ate the wreath. This technique, which was typ 23. Rachel Tyson, Medieval Glass Vessels Found in England
ical in Venetian glass workshops of the late 15th c AD 1200-1500, Council for British Archaeology Research
century, can also be seen on a sapphire blue Report 121, London: the council, 2000, pp. 98-99, no. B 22.1,
excavated at Great Tower Street, City of London, in 1989 (Mu
beaker in The British Museum.22 It also appears seum of London, TWR89<3>). I am grateful to Hazel Forsyth
on a pale purple beaker, excavated in the City for information on this object.

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 FIG. 6. Footed glass dish with unicorn at center, enameled, gilded. Venice (Murano),
early 16th century. D. 25.6 cm. The British Museum, Slade Bequest, 378.
(Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)

red outline, seen from below in the figure, marked of Art, to the first quarter of the 16th century.25
the location of the central cross, on top of which Forty ribs are more common on dishes of this
white and red enamels were applied and out type, as, for example, one with gilded ribs, and
lined with a black line. A second layer of gilding the more unusual dish that has a disk of auber
was applied to the shield as gold leaf or powder gine glass and gold leaf at the center and ap
to provide a grainy effect, in contrast to gold plied trails of aubergine and blue on the rim.26
leaf gilding on the laurel wreath around the Both of these objects are in the Slade Collec
shield. The gilding within the shield has almost tion. Another Slade dish with 40 ribs is closer in
entirely worn away, but the original effect must form to the Del Carretto dish, in the curve of the
have been rich and distinguished. There was no bowl, and in its lack of a folded rim.27 This dish
trace of gilding on the raised ribs, but three lines is unusual in having a gilded band on the foot.
of gilding on the rim can still be made out, in Dishes of this kind, which were once part of
place of the more usual etched gilding and enam large dining sets, can occasionally be dated by
el pattern similar to the wreath at the center. their arms, though rarely as precisely as the Del
Half-molded bowls with 20 raised ribs like Carretto dish. If we situate this object within a
this one are not that common in the first quarsequence of similar dishes, most of which can be
ter of the 16th century, although there is another dated by their arms, the earliest is the molded
example in The British Museum in the form of a plate in the Glass Museum of Murano, which is
dish in the Slade Bequest that is enameled with
a unicorn at the center (Fig. 6). It is similar in
form, but its folded rim is decorated more con
ventionally in enamel and gilding.24 It was dated, 24. Tait [note 3], no. 9.
25. Lanmon and Whitehouse [note 21], no. 14.
by comparison with a similar dish in the Leh 26. Tait [note 3], no. 25; idem [note 20], p. 162, fig. 205.
man Collection of The Metropolitan Museum 27. Tait [note 3], no. 15.

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enameled and gilded with the arms of the Vene- of the bowls in the German collection is illustrat
tian patrician family of Barbarigo under a doge's ed here with a detail of the arms at the center
cap. This combination means that the plate was (Figs. 8 and 9). The two glass bowls in Germany
made during the period marked by the rule of have a folded rim that is gilded on the inside, in
Marco or Agostino Barbarigo between 1485 and stead of the more usual band of etched gilding
1501.28 The heavily gilded ribs on the underside and applied touches of enamel,
may suggest a dating toward the end of this pe- The date sequence continues with a large
riod. group of plain and molded dishes enameled with
In second place in this series of pieces is the the arms of a Medici pope, ei
honeycomb-molded dish in The Toledo Museum ent VII, which can be dated
of Art, which is enameled at the center with the 1534. To my knowledge, t
arms of Louis XII of France impaling those of dishes,34 and two of them ar
his wife, Anne of Brittany. They were married in seum.35 The examples I h
1499, and the dish and the other three pieces in are not as finely made, ena
the set that survive can be dated between 1499 the Del Carretto dish, and th
and 1514, the year in which Anne died.29 The tinctively grayish appearance
profile, apart from the unusual molding, can eas- iations in the enameled arm
ily be compared with that of the Del Carretto gest that they may have com
dish.30 one set.3S
Next in date is a molded dish in t
quest with the arms of the doge L
redan of Venice at the center (Fig.
dated between 1501 and 1521.31 It
by three bowls or deep dishes w
foot-ring, each of which is enam
arms of Boniface, the fifth marqu
ferrato. The arms date the bowls to 1512-1530. set that was therefore made between 1513 and
One of these objects is in Turin,32 while the oth- 1544. They have an enameled and gilded gar
er two are in a private German collection.33 One land at the center, which is similar to the wreath

28. Mille anrti di arte del vetro a Venezia, ed. Rosa Barovier 32. Luigi Mallé, Vetri, vetrate, giade, cristalli di rocca e pie
Mentasti and others, 2nd ed., Venice: Albrizzi, 1982, no. 87. tre dure, Turin: Museo Civico, 1971, p. 38, fig. 15.
29. For the Toledo dish, see Jutta-Annette Page, The Art of 33. I am grateful to the owners of these pieces for their per
Glass, Toledo: The Toledo Museum of Art in association withmission to publish them here.
D. Giles, 2006, pp. 76-77, no. 28C. For the set to which it be 34. Lanmon and Whitehouse [note 21], pp. 27-28.
longs, see Lanmon and Whitehouse [note 21], no. 1; Thierry 35. Slade Bequest, 372. Nesbitt [note 1], no. 372, and British
Crépin-Leblond and Pierre Ennès, Le Dressoir du prince: SerMuseum, Department of Prehistory and Europe, 1854, 12-27,
vices d'apparat à la Renaissance, Ecouen: Musée National de la105, acquired by The British Museum from William Chaffers
Renaissance, and Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995,and previously owned by the Irish antiquary Thomas Crofton
nos. 45 and 46; and Jutta-Annette Page and others, BeyondCroker (1798-1854).
Venice: Glass in Venetian Style, 1500-1750, Corning: The Cor 36. Concerning the jug with these arms that was acquired by
ning Museum of Glass, 2004, pp. 144-145. The Corning Museum of Glass in 2005 (2005.3.28), Dedo von
30. Nipt-diamond-waies, or honeycomb molding, also apKerssenbrock-Krosigk, former curator of European glass there,
pears on a dish in the Slade Bequest. See Tait [note 3], no. 14. comments that variations in the enameled arms on pieces of the
31. This piece has a distinguished provenance from the Degroup "show too many variations to be a single set" and that
bruge-Duménil Collection before 1838. See Jules Labarte, De"there may have been several sets which over time may have
scription des objets d'art qui composent la collection Debrugeneeded replacements for broken dishes."
Duménil, Paris: Victor Didron, 1847, no. 1285; and Tait [note
3], no. 26.

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 ^ n r;r ff ^ *1
' 4, ' **

FIG. 7. Glass dish showing arms of Doge Leonardo Loredan of Venice, enameled,
gilded. Venice (Murano), 1501-1521. D. 23.5 cm. The British Museum, Slade
Bequest, 371. (Photo: © Trustees of The British Museum)

FIG. 8. Glass bowl with arms of Boniface, fifth mar

FIG. 9. Detail of arms on bowl shown in Figure 8.
quis of Monteferrato, enameled, gilded. Venice (Mu
rano), 1512-1530. D. 28.2 cm. Private collection,
Germany.

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in the center of the Del Carretto dish, but it is
much less worn.3
This listing of dated dishes of this type indi
cates the significance of the Del Carretto dish as
the most closely dated object in the entire group,
since the enameled arms indicate that it must
have been made between 1513 and 1521. This
gives it a special significance as an indicator of 15
elite taste in Venetian glass in a field in which
chronology of styles, techniques, and forms
difficult to establish with any precision. It is
history of the Knights of St. John on their island
base of Rhodes, just before it was lost to the
Ottoman Turks in 1522.
37. Three dishes, all with a folded rim, applied foot, and deep
central well, were sold from this set at Christie's, London, on
March 28, 2000, lots 262-264. They varied in size: D. 22.3 cm,
cm, and 5.3 cm. Another dish was sold at Sotheby's, Lon
a don, on June 13, 1995, lot 13. One dish in the set is in the Mu
seum of Glass on Murano: see Attilia Dorigato, Murano Glass
is Museum, Milan: Electa, 1986, p. 18, where the same arms are
identified as those of the Zaguri family. For a pilgrim flask with

therefore important as a fixed point in the story the same arms in the Wolf Collection, see Brigitte Klesse and
Hans Mayr, European Glass from 1500-1800: The Ernesto Wolf
of the development of Venetian glass in its gold Collection, Vienna: Kremayr & Scheriau, 1987, no. 5.1 am grate
en age. It is also a fascinating document for the ful to Rachel Russell for providing more information on this set.

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