194 - POLYCHROME MAIOLICA TILE, FORLIVESE KILN, LATE 15TH CENTURY, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

POLYCHROME MAIOLICA TILE, FORLIVESE KILN, LATE 15TH CENTURY, EARLY 16TH CENTURY rhombus-shaped and decorated with a coat of arms; some loss of material and glaze 27.5 x 27 cm FORLÌ MAIOLICA TILE, LATE 15TH–EARLY 16TH CENTURY; SOME GLAZE AND MATERIAL LOSSES One example from this same series of tiles is currently held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inventory no. BK-NM-12109), dated to 1480–90 with no indication of the kiln; another tile from the same set is housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inv. no. 30:143-1866). The attribution to a Forlì workshop is now widely accepted, while the identification of the coat of arms remains uncertain. The coat of arms depicted here was traditionally attributed to the Ordelaffi family, but this identification remains uncertain, as the correct blazon for the coat of arms of the lords of Forlì is “fascied in green and gold, with a chief of the same charged with a rising lion in green.” It should also be noted that at Formigine Castle there appears a green lion on a gold field, which belonged to the Pio of Savoy, princes of Carpi (Various Authors, *Miscellanea di Storia Italiana*, vol. 9, Turin 1870, p. 352), and that the Acciaiuoli family of Florence also used a lion, sometimes in shades of green, on a gold field.