36B Alternate view.
36D Underside.
36c Detail of mouth of flask.white, slip-covered frit paste rather than porcelain. Trade
with the Ottoman Empire, extending throughout the
Middle East and North Africa, brought ornamented
goods, possibly including ceramics, to Italy.^7 In docu
ments, Iznik wares and Chinese porcelain can be indis
tinguishable, both being referred to in various ways,
often interchangeably, as porcellana or domaschino.^8
By the mid-fifteenth century, these porcelain and
porcelainlike ceramics from the East were making their
way into collections of the European elite. In Italy, late
fifteenth-century and early sixteenth-century invento
ries of the Strozzi, Portinari, Martelli, and other impor
tant Florentine families include porcelain among the
objects listed.^9 Most notable was the collection begun by
Piero and his son Lorenzo de' Medici. By mid-century
the Medici collection of porcelain numbered in the hun
dreds of objects, many of which had been sent as diplo
matic gifts from important Far and Middle Easterners.^10
The arrival of fine ceramics from China and the Islamic
world must have further fostered the taste for these lux
urious and hard-to-come-by objects. It is not surprising,
therefore, that more than one Italian court endeavored to
manufacture porcelain locally.Pilgrim Flask 201