Plate depicting the story of Latona from the Isabella d'Este service

Belonged to Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, it was made between 1519 and 1525 by Nicola da Urbino, one of the most famous majolica masters of the sixteenth century.
The decoration represents Latona with her children while she transforms into frogs the peasants of Lycia, a mythological subject from the Metamorphoses of Ovid.
On the top left, within a quartered shield hanging from the branch of a tree, stand out associated with the noble arms of the Este and the Gonzaga; on the right, in a scroll hanging from a leaf, is placed the personal enterprise of Isabella alluding to esoteric interests-Kabbalistic of the marquise; below, in a small cartouche, is the motto “nec spe / nec metu” (hopeless / nor fear).