Assortment of 21 maiolica service elements. Pasquale Rubati, Milan, 1780 c.

Assortment of 21 maiolica service elements
Pasquale Rubati Factory
Milan, 1780 circa

a. Four large oval dishes or fish dishes 10.43 in x 21.25 in (26.5 cm x 54 cm)
b. Nine round dishes 9.25 in (23.5 cm) diameter
c. Two oval mixtilinear edge dishes 10.2 in x 13.18 in (26 cm x 33.5 cm)
d. A concave oval dish 10.78 in x 14.56 in (27.5 cm x 37 cm)
e. An elongated oval dish 10.62 in x 18.50 in (27 cm x 47 cm)
f. Two baskets 2.7 in x 7.08 in x 9.84 in (7 cm x 18 cm x 25 cm)
g. Two triangular dishes 8.85 in x 10.23 (22.5 cm x 26 cm)

The state of conservation of the works is varied:
The four large plates (a) are all in excellent condition, with the exception of one which presents a mimetic restoration.
Of the nine round dishes (b) only one shows evident restoration.
The two oval dishes (c) and the concave one (d) are intact.
The elongated medium-sized oval dish (e) is intact.
Both baskets (f) have restored breaks.
The two triangular dishes (g) are intact.

The green monochrome is inspired after the French models produced in Marseilles by the painter Honoré Savy, who, with his cut-out flower decoration in”camaieu vert”, is considered the initiator of a fashion that would mark the passage from the rococò polychrome to the new neoclassical rigor.
In Milan, the representative of this new decorative mode was Pasquale Rubati during the golden period of his manufacture, that is to say around 1780. The refined painter, Rubati, opened his own factory in 1756 to compete with Felice Clerici, for whom he had been working.

The assortment of maiolica presents shapes with a flat base. The shapes with a mixtilinear edge are characteristic of the Milanese manufactories. The decoration includes an edge highlighted in brown and decorated with a thin frame with small circles accompanied by minute spirals drawn in black and painted in green; at the center of the composition there are floral elements with the same technical characteristics, either in small bunches or flowered stems.
In the group a number of items stand out: the four dishes (or fish trays) for the size and quality of decoration, the two triangular dishes with blunt points for the unusual shapes and the oval baskets with perforated walls, woven handles and painted internally as well as externally.
Research works find precise confirmation in some of the pieces preserved in the collections of the Museum of Applied Arts at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan: see Ausenda, R. (a cura di) Musei e Gallerie di Milano. Museo d’Arti Applicate. Le ceramiche. II, Milano 2001, pp. 396-399, n. 372.