Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection

with Brunelleschi's cathedral cupola.^16 He consulted a

passage on Ginori porcelain in Marco Lastri's L'osserva-

tore fiorentino to discover that the Medici had produced

objects of porcelain at the end of the sixteenth century

"non senza merito" (not without merit) and that

"v'e ancora chi ne conserva qualche pezzo, e porta il

segno della Cupola della Metropolitana nel rovescio,

colla lettera F" (fig. 3 6D) (a few pieces, marked with the

cathedral's dome and the letter F, are still kept in private

collections).^17 Foresi published his discovery, arousing

a passion for this rare porcelain among European and

American collectors.^18

One finds the largest collections of Medici porcelain

in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (nine

pieces); the Musee National de Ceramique, Sevres (eight

pieces); the British Museum, London (four pieces); and

the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (four

pieces).^19 Only three other Medici porcelain pilgrim

flasks are known to exist: two are in the Musee du

Louvre, Paris, and display typically Chinese-influenced

landscape decoration,- one is in the Victoria and Albert

Museum, London, with a candelieh grotesque decora­

tion and, like the present work, applied masks for the lat­

eral loops. Only the Getty Museum's flask displays the

Medici porcelain factory mark of a cathedral dome and

the letter F (for Francesco I de' Medici) on the underside.

The cathedral-dome mark is particularly large and beau­

tifully painted, with exceptional attention to detail. The

other flasks are unmarked, although the underside of one

of the Louvre flasks (inv. OA 3103) is inscribed with the

word prova (trial), suggesting that it was an early experi­

mental piece.^20

Notes

1. For a concise discussion of the history and development of Medici
   porcelain and its appeal in sixteenth-century Italy see Lightbown 1980,
   458-65.


2. Spallanzani 1990, 316-17, 319.


3. Le Corbeiller 198 8A, 126.


4. See Spallanzani 1994, 130; Mallet 1998, 260, no. 24.


5. See, for example, Rackham 1959, pis. 20-96; Fiocco et al. 1986, 66-69;
   Savage and Newman 1985, 159.


6. For an incisive and thorough examination of the Medicis' love for and
   extensive collection of Eastern, especially Chinese, ceramics, see
   Spallanzani 1978; Spallanzani 1980, 73-94; according to these sources,
   documents establish that the Medicis' collection of Chinese ceramics

numbered around four hundred in 1553 and far exceeded their collection

of native (Faentine and Urbinate) ceramics.

7. One scholar believes that Egyptian ceramics, rather than Turkish,

might have been a more probable source of inspiration for Medici porce­

lain designs (M. Rogers as cited in National Gallery 1993, 238 n. 9).

8. These terms most often indicate Far Eastern and Near Eastern (via the
   market in Damascus) ceramics, respectively. Further confusing matters,
   many Chinese wares arrived in Italy via the Islamic world and were of­
   ten not distinguished from the Islamic ceramics that accompanied them
   to Italy. See Spallanzani 1978, especially chaps. 2-3.


9. Spallanzani 1978, 49-5 5.


10. Spallanzani 1978, 55-68.


11. Lorenzetti 1920, 248; Schmidt 1922, fig. 56.


12. Campori 1871 , 31-33; Lane 1954, 2-3.


13. Lane 1954, 3.


14. A curious addendum to Medici porcelain production before the late sev­
    enteenth century consists of two small porcelaneous bowls in the Victo­
    ria and Albert Museum, London, inscribed I.G.P.F. 1627 and G.C.P.F.
    1638 (Lane 1954, 6-7, figs. 4a-b). Arthur Lane (1954, 6-7) believes that
    they may have been executed in Padua, but no evidence proving or dis­
    proving either their origin or date has been found.


15. Spence recounts that Foresi "got from me a very valuable specimen of
    the very early blue and white Florentine china. It was brought to my
    studio by a man for sale. I thought it was Chinese and kept my brushes
    in it. Nobody seemed to notice or value it. Now, Foresi had read about
    the china made by the Grand Duke Francesco and the mark of the
    cupola of Florence and had examined the piece once or twice and saw
    the mark. He comes to the studio one day and, after praising my paint­
    ing, says, 'What do you do with that bit of china? It will be broken very
    soon. Sell it to me.' I said, 'It cost me 30 lire. You may have it for the
    same.' 'Thirty-five lire/ said he and pulled out the money. He wrapped
    up the bit of china—a sort of hunting flask—and departed in a great
    hurry. A few days later I heard he had sold it to Freppa for 1,500 francs.
    Rothschild bought it from Freppa for, I think, 3 or 4,000 francs" (British
    Museum Add MSS.89900.270, as cited in Fleming 1979, 50 5 n. 81. For
    more information on Spence see Fleming 1979, 492-508; Callmann

(^1) 999/ 338-48; Kerr-Lawson 1904, 310-11).
16. Such as on a large plate of ca. 1745 in the Musee des arts decoratifs,
Paris (Ginori Lisci 1963, 48, 248-49, fig. 24, no. 6). The mark on a
Medici porcelain plate in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche,
Faenza, was even misidentified as belonging to the Doccia factory as re­
cently as 1998 (Burresi 1998, 19).

17. Lastri 1821, 1: 194-95.


18. Foresi 1869, 15-18 (reprinted from Piovano Arlotto [July 1859]).


19. Most of the Medici objects known to exist are reproduced in Cora and
    Fanfani 1986.


20. Other Medici porcelain marks include F surrounded by the letters
    M.M.D.E. II, for "Franciscus Medicis Magnus Dux Etruriae Secundus"
    (on a ewer in the Louvre), and six balls inscribed F M M E D II, for
    "Franciscus Medicis Magnus Etruriae Dux Secundus" (on a plate in the
    Metropolitan Museum of Art and on a large ewer in the Baron Elie de
    Rothschild collection, Paris).

Pilgrim Flask 203