Getty Museum

Tabletop with Hunting Scenes

Date

about 1760

Medium

Tin-glazed earthenware

Culture

Italian

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

This unique tabletop features four hunting scenes: stag, boar, ostrich, and elephant. These images are based on engravings by the Italian artist Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630). Each hunt is set within a *cartouche*, an elaborate frame incorporating botanical elements such as palm fronds with shell-like forms and decorative C- and S-shaped scrolls. The intervening spaces show birds and, in one instance, rabbits in landscapes. At opposite ends, two small cartouches contain Latin inscriptions. One reads “Blond Ceres whose hair is enwreathed with grain”, referencing the Roman goddess of agriculture, and the other “Each man is the maker of his own fortune”, an ancient proverb. Made of maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware), the tabletop is painted in shades of yellow, blue, and green characteristic of Francesco or Filippo Saverio II Maria Grue, the last member of the Grue family, renowned for their maiolica production in the Abruzzi region of central Italy. The sides are painted blue, with a spotted application that suggests a marble-like material. Grue’s artistic skill is evident in both the delicate glazed decoration and the craftsmanship required to fire such a large piece without warping and cracking.

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