https://emuseum.gardinermuseum.com/internal/media/dispatcher/10698/fullDish with scenes of the Rape of Europa1537Workshop of Piero BergantiniOverall: 4 x 47 cm (1 9/16 x 18 1/2 in.)Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)Gift of George and Helen GardinerOrigin: Faenza, Emilia-Romagna, ItalyG83.1.3511This large Faenza piatto da pompa features the Abduction of Europa. In this ancient myth retold by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, the god Jupiter (Zeus) took the form of a bull in order to convince Europa, a Phoenician princess, to climb onto is back. He then forcibly carried her to the island of Crete where he revealed his true identity and raped her. The dish shows two moments of the story: Europa’s encounter with Jupiter as white bull in the right foreground, and her abduction, as the bull carries her across the sea. The narrative scene is framed by a dark blue ornamental border decorated with dolphins, foliage, and cherub’s heads in white. The date “1537” appears four times around the border, as well as on the back. The back of the dish is decorated in blue on blue and yellow, with so-called “San Bernardino rays” and alla porcellana ornament.
This dish was donated to the Gardiner Museum by George and Helen Gardiner. The Gardiners acquired the piece at Christie's London, in 1979. Forty years prior, it had been part of the vast collection of Renaissance Art assembled by Jewish collector Dr. Alfred Pringsheim (1850-1941), a professor of mathematics at the University of Munich (see the full history of ownership below). Heir to a great fortune and a leading collector of the time, his home stood at the centre of Munich’s cultural life. With 440 pieces, his collection of Italian Renaissance maiolica then represented the largest collection in Germany.
In 1933, as the National Socialists took power, Jewish families in Munich faced persecution. That year, Pringsheim was forced to sell his great house to the Nazis. In November 1938, the Gestapo seized their art collections, including a notable collection of German Renaissance silver, paintings, clocks, and bronzes. The maiolica collection was earmarked by the Nazi’s for a sale to be held in London in order to raise foreign currency. Pringsheim was thus forced to forge an agreement with the German State and to consent to receiving only 40% of the proceeds of the sale. In exchange, Alfred Pringsheim and his wife Hedwig Dohm were allowed to immigrate to Switzerland.
The collection was sold in two sales at Sotheby’s, London, in June and July 1939. As the market for maiolica was at an historic low, the profits realized were disappointing and Alfred Pringsheim only received 15% of the value of the sale. In October of that year, the Pringsheim couple immigrated to Switzerland, their five adult children having already left the country. Alfred Pringsheim died in 1941, and Hedwig Dohm the following year.
After the war, the Pringsheim children claimed compensation from the German State for the silver and maiolica collections. In 1946, they obtained restitution of the silver collection which had been transferred to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich in 1941. By contrast to the silver, the maiolica was then scattered across European and American collections. In 1955, following a settlement agreement with the German government, the heirs received restitution of the proceeds from the sale paid to the Reichsbank following the 1939 sale.
Provenance: Collection Dr. Alfred Pringsheim, Munich; Sold June 7, 1939, Sotheby's & Co., lot 63 / Collection Robert Lehman (d.1969) in New York (purchased through Goldschmidt Gallery, NY, who purchased it from the Pringsheim Sotheby’s sale on behalf of Lehman); Sold at Christie's London, July 2, 1979, lot 140 / Collection of George R. and Helen. E. Gardiner
References: Otto von Falke, Die Majolikasammlung Alfred Pringsheim in München, vol. 2 (Leiden: A. W. Sijthoff’s Uitgevers-Maatschappij, 1914), no. 180; Catalogue of the Renowned Collection of Italian Majolica, The Property of Dr. Alfred Pringsheim of Munich, Sotheby & Co., London, June 7, 1939, lot. 64; Meredith Chilton and J. P. Palmer. Treasures of The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (Toronto: Gardiner Museum, 1984), 26; Von Falke, Otto. Die Majolikasammlung Alfred Pringsheim / Le maioliche italiane della collezione Pringsheim. Revised and augmented edition with an introduction by Timothy Wilson (Ferrara: Belriguardo Arte, 1994), no. 168; The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. A Collection of Collections (Toronto: Gardiner Museum, 2002), 20-21.
Other sources on the Pringsheim Collection: Seeling, Lorenz. “The Art Collection of Alfred Pringsheim,” Journal of the History of Collections 29, no. 1 (2016): 161–180; Bilski, Emily D. “The Lives of Objects beyond Ownership: The Meaning of Provenance,” IASL 46, no. 1 (2021) 300–321; Bilski, Emily D.. “A Conversation across Time and Space: Maiolica in the Collections of Isabella d’Este, Alfred Pringsheim and Robert Lehman,” in Collecting and Provenance, edited by Andrea M. Gáldy, Ronit Sorek, Netta Assaf and Gal Ventura (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), 134-151.
Italian Maiolica14th to 18th Century European Earthenware and Stoneware[]European CeramicsItalian Earthenware - Maiolica2033041271ItalianItalian RenaissanceInscription, recto and verso: '1537'