Charger Depicting a Chariot Race (c. 1575): Art, History and Details

Charger Depicting a Chariot Race (c. 1575) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Fontana Family (Italian).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the Renaissance, an understanding of classical antiquity was perceived to be a sign of social, intellectual, and economic distinction. Scenes from Greco-Roman mythology were prominently featured on maiolica, covering the surface in a style called istoriato (decorated with stories).

Object facts

• Title: Charger Depicting a Chariot Race
• Date: c. 1575
• Creator attribution: Fontana Family (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Urbino
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 8.6 x 45.7 cm (3 3/8 x 18 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1942.622

A detail from the museum

The creatures along the rim of this plate are loosely based on the figures discovered on the walls of Roman ruins a century before.

Collection credit

Bequest of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• John Long Severance Art Collection Photographs: Furniture, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Catalogue of the John L. Severance Collection: Bequest of John L. Severance, 1936. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1942.
• Milliken, William M., Gertrude Underhill, and Jean Mailey. “Department of Decorative Arts.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 29, no. 9 (November 1942): 137–51.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.