THE BABY CYRUS EXCHANGED FOR THE SHEPHERD'S SON - AN ITALIAN MAIOLICA 'ISTORIATO' PLAQUE

THE BABY CYRUS EXCHANGED FOR THE SHEPHERD'S SON - AN ITALIAN MAIOLICA 'ISTORIATO' PLAQUE

BY FRANCESCO XANTO AVELLI, SIGNED, URBINO, 1536

number 4 from a series of probably 40 plaques, of rectangular form, painted with a scene from the Life of Cyrus (Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Book 1, Ch. IV) showing the baby Cyrus in a stable being suckled by the shepherd's wife with three further figures in attendance while the shepherd walks away with his own son. The sun shines in the top right corner with the red painted figure of Fortuna flying in front. Resting before the stable is a recumbent bitch who was found protecting and suckling the baby Cyrus. Inscribed 'no.4' beneath the bitch. Xanto's autograph 'F.X.R.' can be seen in black to the lower right. Across the lower edge of the plaque is the the inscription 'Cyro cangio Fortuna, e madre a un'tempo. Nel I libro de Justino Hist: de bellis exterris: no.10' in black. This translates as 'Cyrus changed fortune and mother. From the first book of Justin's History of Foreign Wars'.The plaque is mounted in an ebonised box frame with a mahogany outer frame. A paper label to the back of the box frame is inscribed 'Oblong Majolica Plaque. The Birth of Cyrus by Xanto. Description on the bottom. 12 1/2 in. by 11 1/2 in. From the Fountaine Collection. Bought at sale at Sotheby's 18 June 1884. Lot 365. Price £17.17.'

29.4cm x 26.9cm

Provenance

The Sir Andrew Fountaine Collection, Narford Hall, Norfolk

Christie, Manson & Woods, The Fountaine Collection of Majolica, Henri II. Ware, Palissy Ware, Nevers Ware, Limoges Enamels, Monday 18th June 1884, lot 365 where sold for £17. s.17.

General Pitt Rivers

By decent to Stella Pitt Rivers (nee Lonsdale)

Gifted to the vendors parents who were employed by the Pitt Rivers Family.

Source text:

Epitome of Pompeius Trogus by Justin, Books 1-20

Edited and translated by JC Yardley and published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, London England, 2024

“At birth, the infant was given to Harpagus, who was privy to the king’s secrets, to be killed. He, fearing that should the throne come to the daughter on the king’s death, since Astyages had produced no male heir, and that she, unable to exact vengeance from her father for the infant’s death would so do from his henchman, then passed him on to the king’s cattle herdsman to be exposed. It so happened that at the same time a son had also been born to the herdsman. So his wide, on hearing of the royal child’s exposure, abjectly pleaded with him to have the boy brought to her and shown to her, Worn down by her entreaties, the herdsman returned to the wood to find a bitch beside the infant, offering him her teats and protecting him from wild animals and birds. Being himself also moved to as much compassion as he had seen also in a dog, he took the boy to his shed, with that same dog anxiously following him. When the woman took her in her arms, he snuggled into her as if he knew her, and there seemed such vitality in him and such sweetness in the affectionate child’s smile, that the wife actually asked the herdsman to expose her own baby in his place and to allow her (fulfilling either his destiny or her own hope) to nurse the boy. And so with the youngster’s fates interchanged one was raised as a herdsman’s son, the other exposed as the king’s grandchild. The child’s nurse was later named Spargos because that is Persian for dog”.