Ceramic basket of fruit and flowers
Artist
Giovanni della Robbia, (Workshop of)
Italian, 1469 - 1529
Date1320-1570
MediumGlazed earthenware
DimensionsOverall: 6 1/4 x 10 x 9 1/8 in. (15.9 x 25.4 x 23.2 cm)
ClassificationsCeramics
Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde
Object number1971.217.2
On View
On viewCollections
DescriptionThese brightly colored, glazed terracotta baskets of fruit are not simply decorative domestic objects. They promise fertility, abundance, and prosperity for their owners, and imaginatively suggest sweet smells, always desired in Renaissance households. More specifically, they recall "Dovizia" (Abundance, Wealth), a famous Donatello sculpture originally in Florence’s open market square, now lost. Numerous surviving paintings, prints, and sculptures record "Dovizia’s" original appearance: a female in classicizing dress personifying prosperity and riches holds a cornucopia and supports a basket of fruit on her head while small boys tug at her garment. The boys suggest yet another aspect of wealth’s meaning, beyond general fertility and abundance, for children were considered among the family’s most valuable possessions, even surpassing desire for financial wealth in mercantile Florence. The Hyde’s terracottas, similar to "Dovizia’s" basket, thus recall Donatello’s well-known prototype and its inscription: "May Honor and Wealth Be in Your Home." Giovanni della Robbia’s shop produced not only these popular fruit baskets, typically in pairs, as here, but also created small-sized terracotta replicas of Donatello’s sculpture "Dovizia," a number of copies of which are extant. - Decorative Arts
The Hyde’s baskets are similar to each other but distinct. Most evident: one includes a green frog among the fruits and vegetables (1971.217.1), while its pendant exhibits a salamander and snail (1971.217.2).
A recent conservation report suggests The Hyde’s terracottas are in "the style of della Robbia" and possibly date from the late sixteenth century.
Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, February 2026
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Basket of yellow glazed earthenware with polychrome glazed earthenware fruit and flowers. Very similar to 1971.217.1, but without the frog.
Text from 2008Exhibition History"Family Pride: The Italian Renaissance House and its Furnishings," The Hyde Collection, April 12 - May 20, 1984.ProvenanceLuigi Orselli Collection; New York, American Art Association sale, Feb. 15-19, 1921, lot 88, from whom purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Louis F. Hyde; Glens Falls, New York, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Louis F. Hyde, 1921; by bequest to The Hyde Collection, 1952.
