A SERVICE FOR ISABELLA D’ESTE – A BOWL TELLS ITS STORY

1/6: The bowl from Isabella d’Este’s majolica service in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

By Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Prologue

It all begins when a prestigious work of art turns up at an auction in Paris: the majolica bowl from the service belonging to Isabella d'Este, the most famous woman of the Renaissance. The news spreads like wildfire and ignites an international battle to possess it. It is little short of a miracle that this unique rarity eventually ends up in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, of all places.

Schüssel (piatto da pompa) mit Mannalese aus dem Service von Isabella d’Este, Mantua (1524) by Urbino, Nicola da / Veneziano, Agostino / Sanzio, Raffaello / Raimondi, MarcantonioMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

🔘: “I’m the greatest!”

“Well, only by about two or three millimeters, but size matters! At 52.3 centimetres, I am the biggest bowl in the majolica service of Isabella d’Este, the most celebrated patroness of the arts and ruler of the Renaissance, “the most famous woman in the world” as the brilliant Italian aristocrat is also known.”

🔘: “And I am not only the greatest, I am unique and also a real beauty! And to top it all, I weigh in at a hefty 3185 grammes. You can look at me from all sides in 3-D:”

Loading 3D model

Schüssel (piatto da pompa) mit Mannalese aus dem Service von Isabella d’Este, Mantua

, Urbino, Nicola da / Veneziano, Agostino / Sanzio, Raffaello / Raimondi, Marcantonio, 1524, From the collection of: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

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🔘: “When you look at me it is hard to imagine what a turbulent life I have behind me. Specially commissioned as a one-off, given away, auctioned off, inherited, broken, repaired and restored – I have been spared nothing, but let’s take it step by step.”

🔘: “I call me the bowl, but I am a bit of a chatterbox. After all, it’s me who is in the spotlight, and I know best how it all came about.”

A speaker will give me a hand with dates, facts and scholarly know-how.

You can tell when I am the one speaking by my icon: 🔘

Since I am older than you, we are welcome to continue our conversation on first-name terms.

Hello. Nice to see you. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Would you like to know how I ended up in this museum? Then click below for Chapter 2:“

Further chapters

1: A SERVICE FOR ISABELLA D’ESTE – A BOWL TELLS ITS STORY
2: HOW DOES A BOWL END UP IN A MUSEUM?
3: AN IMPORTANT COMMISSION FOR NICOLA DA URBINO
4: A CRASH COURSE IN MAJOLICA
5: FOCUS ON THE BOWL
6: A PORTRAIT OF ISABELLA D’ESTE

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