36
Pilgrim Flask
Medici Porcelain Factory (1575-early
seventeenth century)
Florence
15 80sSoft-paste porcelain
H: 26.4 cm (io^3 /s in.)
Diam (at lip): 4 cm (1V16 in.)
W (max.): 20 cm (7% in.)
86.DE.630
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS
On the underside, the dome of Santa Maria dei
Fiori accompanied by F} a mark resembling 3
scratched under the glaze and painted with blue
glaze; on the rim, three hatch marks inscribed
before the glaze firing.
CONDITION
Firing crack in the lip (fig. 36c) and small chip on
the rim of the foot, which occurred after the
bisque firing but before the decoration had been
applied. (That the ceramists found no need to
mend or redo the chipped body is proof that they
were well satisfied with such a successfully
formed and fired, albeit blemished, object in this
experimental medium.)PROVENANCE
William Blundell Spence, Florence, sold to
A. Foresi, 1857; Alessandro Foresi, Florence, sold
to G. Freppa; [Giovanni Freppa, Florence, sold to
E. Piot]; Eugene Piot, Paris (sold, Hotel des Com-
missaires-Priseurs, Paris, March 19, i860, lot 82,
to M. A. de Rothschild); Baron (Mayer) Alphonse
de Rothschild (1827-1905), Paris,- by inheritance to
Baron Edouard (Alphonse James) de Rothschild
(1868-1949), Paris; appears to have been looted
from Rothschild's collection by the Nazis and then
restituted to him after the war by the French gov
ernment; by inheritance to Baron Guy (Edouard
Alphonse Paul) (b. 1909) and Baroness Marie-
Helene (i927-1999) de Rothschild, Paris, sold
to Curarrow Corp.; [Curarrow Corporation N. V,
Curacao, Antilles, sold to the J. Paul Getty
Museum, 1986].EXHIBITIONS
Exposition retrospective du Trocadero, Paris, 187 8
(Darcel 1878, 762).BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jacquemart 1859, 276; Jacquemart and Blant 1862,
644, no. 5; Foresi 1869, 1511, 29 (erroneously lists
Baron Gustave de Rothschild, Paris, as owner),
reprint from Piovani Arlotto (July 1859); Darcel
1878, 762; Davillier 1882, 39-41, 114-15, no. 29;
Grollier 1914, 1: no. 2309; Ricci 1919, 29, no. 22
(also states erroneously that flask belonged to
Gustave de Rothschild and was passed to his son,
Robert); Liverani 1936, 31 , no. 28; Lane 1954, 5,
pi. 3C; GettyMusJ 15 (1987): 216-17, no. 115;
Hess 1988A, no. 36; Le Corbeiller 1988A, 119-26;
Masterpieces 1997, 27, no. 18; Mariaux 1995 , 118;
Thornton 1998, 29, pi. 47; Museum Handbook
2001, 244; Summary Catalogue 2001, no. 374.THIS FLASK IS ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXAMPLES of
porcelain made in Europe.^1 Produced in the Medici
porcelain factory in Florence, it is one of only sixty-odd
objects that remain today from perhaps the three hun
dred that were made at this factory.^2 Characteristic of
Medici porcelain wares are the signs of their experimen
tal nature: the white clay base often displays a pink or
gray cast; the pigment is frequently blurred, with small
bubbles or a wide crackle,- and the clay body is some
times misshapen, having sagged out of shape when the
object was fired. The Museum's flask is an exceptionally
beautiful piece since it displays the finest qualities of
Medici porcelain, including a well-formed, translucent
white body decorated with clear designs in blue under-
glaze, evidence of a restrained and sensitive touch. The
particularly fine quality of this flask can be associated
with a pair of similarly decorated bottles dated 15 81.^3
Although it seems likely that plates of Medici porcelain were used at the dinner table,^4 given its preciousness
and chiefly ornamental shape, this flask must have
served as a display piece. The applied side loops, certainly
never used to suspend the object from a pilgrim's shoul
der, assume the form of satyrs' masks (fig. 3 6B), reflect
ing the influence of maiolica wares from Urbino dating
to the 1560s and 1570s (see no. 34). The flask combines
this typically Italian Renaissance form with decoration
from the East, specifically Chinese blue and white porce
lain of the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644) (fig. 36E) and
Turkish Iznik ware dating from about 1500 (fig. 36F).^5
Ming porcelain was a particular favorite in Italy,
partly because it appeared to unite characteristics of both
pottery (sturdiness, colorfulness) and glass (refinement,
translucency), two crafts Italian artists had mastered by
the late fifteenth century.^6 Indeed Italian maiolica ce
ramists were sufficiently aware of these Chinese wares
to attempt to imitate them in their alia porcellana earth
enware decoration (see, for example, no. L9).
However, the predominant decoration of blue
arabesques and the stylized floral embellishment—in
cluding rose, carnation, tulip, and palmette motifs—ap
pears to be derived from a type of pottery made at Iznik
in Turkey (northeast of Istanbul) that is composed of a198