Footnotes

The scene is based on a print after Raphael's depiction of The Way to Calvary for the Church of S. Maria dello Spasimo in Palermo (now in the Prado Museum, Madrid, J.H. Beck, Raphael (1994), col. pl. 16), perhaps via the engraving by Agostino Veneziano (Bartsch XIV, 193). The scene was also painted on an Urbino plaque, now in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, published by Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti, La Donazione Fanfani (1990), no. 120, col. pl. 235.

This plaque may be attributed to Faenza and the workshop of Baldessarre Manara, rather than Urbino. See Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti, Baldassarre Manara Faentino (1996) for details of houses, castles, trees and clouds that match the painting on this plaque very closely (especially pp. 53ff, for closely similar twig-like branches issuing from the tree foliage) and there attributed to Baldessare Manara and his workshop. The latest dated example of Manara's work published by Guidotti is an unsigned work of 1538, but the artist was still alive in 1546, so this plaque represents an important addition to the recorded documentary pieces.

A fragmentary label on the reverse is inscribed:
Questo [...] o/ Appassionato/ [...] in [...] croce in spalla/ fu fatto come si vede, l'anno/ 1541. Le pi[...] in Terra C[otta]/ in [..]riaf[..] simili à qu[esto?]/ e [...] [?]allera [...]/ [...] Vasari nelle Vi [=Vite]/ [...] 263 sul/ [...] Robbia,/ quale [...]/ Francia [...] a/ Girolamo suo [...]

Apart from a description of the subject, the last lines may be a reference to Girolamo Della Robbia, to whom Vasari refers at the end of his chapter on Della Robbia as moving to France to paint maiolica.

A second label is inscribed:
Appartement/ un/ Prince/ Joseph Poniatowski

Provenance:
The frame gives some intriguing hints of the distinguished provenance of this plaque. There are two possible candidates among the Poniatowski family. The first, Prince Josef Antoni Poniatowski (1763-1813), was a nephew of Stanislaw August, the last king of Poland, and a famous general. His cousin Stanislaw Poniatowski (1754-1833) emigrated to Italy, where he lived in Florence in the Palazzo Poniatowski. Property of his, and apparently from his cousin Josef, was sold by Christie's in three sales in February 1839: works of art, including 'Raffaelle Ware', as maiolica was known at the time, was offered on February 7th (although the present lot is not listed in the catalogue); the picture gallery the following day; and the cabinet of antique gems was offered between 29 April and 21 May.

The second - more likely - possibility is that the plaque belonged to Stanislaw Poniatowski's son, Joseph Poniatowski (1816-73), who, although born out of wedlock, was awarded the title Prince Poniatowski by the Austrian Emperor in 1850. He moved to Paris as a Minister Plenipotentiary of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and subsequently to England, where he died in 1873.

It is not certain which Marquess or Earl of Breadalbane acquired the plaque and commissioned the elaborate wooden frame bearing his crest. The plaque passed to The Hon. Caroline Mary Morgan Grenville (1886-1972), a granddaughter of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (whose mother, Lady Mary, was the daughter of the 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Breadalbane), and thence by descent.