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

14 Domenico Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1448/9-1494). The Birth of Saint John

the Baptist (detail), ca. 1486/7. Fresco in Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Photo: Alinari/Art Resource, New York. An albarello with a lid, pre­

sumably holding a medicine to aid in childbirth or sleep, sits on a round

box between two lemons on the headboard of Saint Elizabeth's bed.

15 Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642). Young Bacchus, 1620. Oil on canvas.

Florence, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti. Photo: Alinari/Art Resource,

New York. The young boy in the foreground holds a late sixteenth-

century maiolica jug with compendiario decoration.

Typical among these shapes, jugs, two-handled jars, ton-

dini (small, rounded bowls), and albarelli (cylindrical

storage jars) are represented in the Museum's collection.

Albaielli were most often used in the home (fig. 14) and

in public and private pharmacies for conserving and

transporting preparations in viscous, paste, or dry form,

including pharmaceuticals as well as various nonmedici-

nal spices, herbs, dyes, and ointments (see nos. 5, 10-12,

14 , 16, 21, 24). They were closed with a lid or with a

piece of paper, parchment, or cloth tied around the rim.

Their name may derive from an Arabic term that refers

to containers made of sections of bamboo that were used

in the East.^19

During the second half of the sixteenth century

there were significant changes in the pottery shapes,

reflecting a new interest in highly decorative, undulating

forms. Toward the middle of the century, as pictorial

maiolica decoration was passing from vogue, potters and

painters began breaking up and rearranging into com­

partments both the ceramic surface and the painted dec­

oration. Maiolica potters invented the crespina form in

imitation of highly valued metal repousse vessels.^20

These crespine were gadrooned (the rounded molding

was decoratively notched), embossed, and molded in

shell, mask, and other ornate shapes (see no. 31). One

finds the ultimate expression of this fondness for irregu­

lar surfaces and surface decoration in the sculptural

flasks, basins, vases, and wine coolers of the late six­

teenth century (see no. 35), as well as in the sketchy

compendiario (shorthand) style of painting (fig. 15).

Compendiario painting—executed in a limited palette,

often on wares with pure white grounds (called bianchi)—

also enabled workshops to turn out large numbers of

finished pieces quickly and efficiently in order to meet

the demands of an expanding market. In San Casiano

on a trip through Tuscany in 15 81, Michel de Montaigne

observed that these white wares "are like porcelain, they

are so white and clean. Indeed, they are so refined and

such a bargain that they seem better suited for tableware

than the French wares of pewter, especially those served

in hotels, which are really filthy/'^21

10 Introduction