Art News

Renaissance masterpiece by Francesco Xanto Avelli discovered by Lyon & Turnbull

EDINBURGH.- A rare and previously unrecorded plate by the important Maiolica artist Francesco Xanto Avelli, dated 1537, has been uncovered by Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers. The plate was discovered on a regular house valuation and is expected to realise over £100,000 at auction at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on the 7th December 2011. The plate is thought to have been purchased by the vendor’s family in Italy between 1894 and 1916. Celia Curnow, ceramics consultant to Lyon & Turnbull said “I have waited more than thirty years to see a piece of this quality outside a museum.” In his 2007 exhibition held at London’s Wallace Collection devoted to Xanto, curator John Mallett, former Keeper of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London described Xanto as “Pottery-Painter, Poet, Man of the Italian Renaissance.” Xanto Avelli was born in Italy, about 1486. Nothing at all is known of his origins, his e