The Cultural Context of Maiolica in Renaissance Italy

Professor, History of Art, University of Michigan The rise of Italian maiolica is a quintessential phenomenon of the Renaissance, the result of technical innovation and artistic skill, and an increasingly varied addition to the market of consumer items that served functions of display and conviviality.1 It was admired for its novelty, pleasurable visual effects, and ability to trump the ancients. In 1568, the painter Giorgio Vasari favorably contrasted maiolica with ancient pottery, which never had "the lustrous glazing nor the charm and variety of painting" evident in his own day.2 Spurred by local demand for Hispano-Moresque ceramics [see Wilson, "The Impact of Hispano-Moresque Imports in Fifteenth-century Florence," this volume], Italian potters transformed utilitarian objects into increasingly colorful, diverse products, which in turn became export items. Early Italian pottery was decorated with simple forms and marked by a limited palette, like a green and brown jug from Orvieto (cat. no. 5) or mid-fifteenth-century pitcher from Florence ornamented with dark blue monstrous birds, a lion, and an oak-leaf pattern against a cream ground