A rare Chinese Canton enamel armorial dish for Silvio Valenti Gonzaga, Qianlong Dia.: 15,5 cm Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (1 March 1690 – 28 August 1756) was an Italian nobleman and Catholic priest. Gonzaga was born in Mantua. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal in 1738 by Pope Clement XII. On 15 May 1747 he was given the titular church of San Callisto. He died in Viterbo. The nobleman owned a large collection of paintings (including the Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo), which, after his death, was sold on 18 May 1763 in Amsterdam. The dish was part of a service. A Canton enamel dish of the same design was exhibited in Chinese Painted Enamel, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1978, cat. no. 105, and another from the collection of J.A. Lloyd Hyde was exhibited in Chinese Painted Enamels from Private and Museum Collections, The China Institute of America, New York, 1978, cat. no. 39. See also: Sotheby's, London, May 13, 2015, Lot 388. (link)