Tabletop

This unusual object is the only known Italian eighteenth-century tabletop made of maiolica. The top is divided into four hunting scenes, with exotic subjects such as Moors hunting elephants and ostriches each framed by an elaborate cartouche. Such typical Rococo motifs as intertwining vegetation, fruit swags, and pastoral scenes fill the intervening spaces. The delicate painting in a predominantly green and yellowish-green palette is typical of objects produced by Francesco Saverio Grue in his family's workshop, long connected with the manufacture of painted maiolica at Castelli, near Naples. The tabletop was originally set into a contemporary base for use as an occasional table or gueridon. Gueridons--circular, tray-like tabletops set on column or tripod supports--first appeared in France around the middle of the 1600s; this table form soon spread to Italy, where it remained popular until the end of the 1700s. The Getty Museum's tabletop shows Grue's skill as a maiolica artist, not only because of the delicate glazed decoration but also because he successfully kiln-fired a large object without warping and cracking it.