Venus is seated with a flame in her right hand in a chariot drawn by two swans and accompanied by cupids with bows, quivers and lit torches. The almost black background shades into yellow and a bank of clouds around the edge. The enamelled back has three raised rings around the edge. The rings and recess profiles are painted in yellow. In the handwritten inventory of the Cerruti Collection dating to 1993, the plate was described as being in the Hall and was attributed to “Pellipario”, a name mistakenly used to indicate Nicola da Urbino. The note species that “it formed part of the service for the marriage of Federico Gonzaga”, with reference to the service made by Nicola in around 1553 for Federico Gonzaga and his wife Margherita Paleologo in which two plates feature images of the Chariot of Juno (London, Wallace Collection) and the Chariot of Mars (Faenza, MIC). Other plates that can be attributed to the hand of Nicola are painted with representations of the Planets based on the engravings by Gabriele Giolito, published in Venice in 1533: a plate with the Chariot of Diana (Sèvres, Musée National de la Céramique) and one with the Chariot of Apollo (London, Victoria and Albert Museum).¹ 

Despite having some similarities to these works, the plate in the Cerruti Collection stands out for its composition and style. Apart from generic references to an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, known as Quos Ego, and one by Giulio Bonasone with the Chariot of Venus and Cupid, no detailed references to engravings have been found. See the considerations made regarding the plate with the Chariot of Venus at the National Gallery in Washington.² Motifs derived from the Petrarchan triumphs, such as the fire associated with Venus and the cherubs, can be added to the subject linked to the Planet. 

Cristina Maritano 

¹ J. V. G. Mallet, “Nicola da Urbino and Francesco Xanto Avelli”, in Xanto 2007, pp. 233-234. 

² T. Wilson, in Western Decorative Arts 1993, p. 120, n0. 2; E. P. Sani, in Deruta 2004, no. 75.