Italy is a peninsula fortunately placed in the centre of the Mediterranean to take advantage of numerous trade routes linking East and West. Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Italian city states imported ceramics from abroad, especially from Syria, Turkey and Spain (parts of which were under Islamic control until 1492). The forms and decoration of early Italian maiolica betray their Islamic origin and, even after Italian artists had developed their own style of ornamentation, Eastern influences were still occasionally apparent. By the mid-fifteenth century porcelain from the Far East and porcelain-like objects from the Islamic world were officially documented in Italian collections and were, therefore, more readily available sources of inspiration for designs.
The manufacture of porcelain was a closely-guarded secret in the Far East. Porcelain objects, therefore, were highly prized and much coveted by collectors in the West, eager to possess and even recreate such precious and inherently mysterious objects. Cafaggiolo, outside Florence, specialised in maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) with blue and white decoration of scrolling foliage, based on Eastern examples. However, in about 1575 Grand Duke Francesco I de'Medici hired a potter from the Levant and instructed him to produce porcelain. The result was a soft-paste fritware comprising Vicenza clay and ground glass, decorated with hazy painting and eggshell glaze. The production of 'Medici porcelain' did not continue beyond the death of the Grand Duke, in 1587.
The decoration of these wares was indebted to a variety of sources comprising European grotesques, Chinese Porcelain and Iznik pottery, the latter of which incorporated various foliate and floral patterns and began arriving from Turkey by the sixteenth century. At a time when Italian artists had developed their own visual idiom, such imitations of Eastern products testify to the continuing attraction and value of the more exotic product.
Physical description
Pilgrim bottle of soft-paste 'Medici' porcelain painted in underglaze glue. With a flattened pear-shaped broad body and a slender tapering neck having a flange for a metal cover. Painted in underglaze blue with foliage and grotesque winged heads and pendant draperies. Shoulders with moulded grotesques, as handles, and open-mouthed masks with loops above.
Place of Origin
Florence, Italy (made)
Date
ca. 1575-1587 (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Soft-paste 'Medici' porcelain painted in underglaze blue and moulded
Dimensions
Height: 20 cm, Width: 15.2 cm, Depth: 9.8 cm, Weight: 0.68 kg
Object history note
Historical significance: One decorative impulse of the Renaissance was the desire to recreate porcelain, the recipe for which was a closely guarded secret of the Far East. Cafaggiolo, outside Florence, specialised in maiolica with blue and white decoration of scrolling foliage, based on Eastern examples. However, in about 1575 Grand Duke Francesco I de'Medici hired a potter from the Levant and instructed him to produce porcelain. The result was a soft-paste fritware comprising Vicenza clay and ground glass, decorated with hazy painting and eggshell glaze. The production of 'Medici porcelain' did not continue beyond the death of the Grand Duke, in 1587.
Historical context note
Italy is a peninsular fortunately placed, in the centre of the Mediterranean, to take advantage of numerous trade routes linking East and West. Throughout the Renaissance, Italians continued to import ceramics from abroad, especially from Syria, Turkey and Spain (the southern part of which was under Islamic rule). The forms and decoration of early Italian maiolica betray their Islamic origin and, even after Italian artists had developed their own style of ornamentation, Eastern influences were still apparent. By the mid-fifteenth century porcelain from the Far East and porcelain-like objects from the Islamic world appear officially documented in Italian collections, rendering them sufficiently accessible sources of design.
The manufacture of porcelain was the closely guarded secret of the Far East. Porcelain objects, therefore, were highly prized and much coveted by collectors in the West, eager to possess such precious and inherently mysterious objects.
Descriptive line
Pilgrim bottle of soft-paste 'Medici' porcelain, painted in underglaze blue, Florence, ca. 1575-1587.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Baker, Malcolm and Richardson, Brenda, eds. A Grand Design : The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publications, 1997. 431 p., ill. ISBN 1851773088.
This bottle, with its glassy body and hazy delicate painting, is an example of the first European hybrid porcelain, produced before 1587 for Francesco Maria de' Medici, second grand duke of Tuscany, in an attempt to imitate the Chinese blue-and-white porcelain then reaching Italy via Persia. It was among the porcelain bequeathed to the Museum by George Salting in 1910. By 1859 South Kensington had already acquired two Medici pieces; J. C. Robinson was among the first to recognise the importance of so-called Medici porcelain in the history of ceramics, following its neglect in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After the first attempt to identify these wares appeared in 1859, Robinson acquired from its author a twin-bottle cruet and a large bowl, and in October 1860 signalled their significance in a note in the Art Journal: "Dr Foresi, by his inductive reasoning and close research, brought together history and specimens of ware. The `Medici porcelain' is henceforward a new feature in the history of the art." At that time the total number of surviving pieces was estimated at fewer than fifteen, and strong interest from Paris ensured that many pieces subsequently found their way to the Louvre, the Mus‚e National de C‚ramique at Sèvres, and the Mus‚e Jacquemart Andr‚.
Over the next fifty years the Museum acquired nine out of over sixty surviving pieces of Medici porcelain, assembling the largest single collection anywhere. Initially considered a subdivision of majolica rather than early Italian porcelain, the earlier acquisitions were discussed in C. D. Fortnum's 1873 catalogue of majolica, but later they were seen as precursors of true porcelain. Already in 1908 the V&A's four examples of the "rare Florentine porcelain of the 16th cent." were singled out with a star in a Baedeker guidebook account of the "Keramic Gallery." By 1935, in the new Ceramics Galleries, the Medici porcelain was shown by itself in a "front pedestal case."
Lit. Foresi, 1859; Fortnum, 1873, pp. lxv-lxix; Lane, 1954, p. 3; Cora and Fanfani, 1986
ROBIN HILDYARD
Exhibition History
Precious: Objects and Changing Values (The Millennium Galleries, Sheffield 02/04/2001-24/06/2001)
A Grand Design - The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum 12/10/1999-16/01/2000)
Labels and date
Pilgrim-Bottle
Soft-paste 'Medici Porcelain'
Made in Florence about 1575-1587
Salting Bequest
C.2301-1910
(Label draft attributed to John V. G. Mallet, ca. 1995) [ca. 1995]
Materials
Soft-paste porcelain; Glaze
Techniques
Painted; Moulded
Subjects depicted
Foliage; Masks; Grotesque; Swags; Motifs; Pattern
Categories
Porcelain; Ceramics
Collection code
CER
