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

16 Cipriano Piccolpasso. Folio 11 from Li tie libri dell'arte del vasaio

(1557). London, Victoria and Albert Museum. The various parts of

a parturition set.

Why was this ceramic art so popular and so highly

developed in Renaissance Italy? It might well be true

that eating off of glazed ceramics was more palatable

than eating off of wood or pewter. Yet the question re­

mains: Why is it that, in the Renaissance, beautiful

things—that is, objects made valuable by their crafts­

manship rather than by their intrinsic worth—appear

for the first time so pervasively and in such numbers?

Richard Goldthwaite, a prominent scholar outside the

ranks of art history, believes that the Renaissance can be

distinguished from previous periods by a great new de­

mand for secular architecture, comprising not only civic

monuments but also private residences. These struc­

tures were now gathered in urban centers rather than

in a countryside controlled by feudalism. One result of

this new construction was that "furnishings of every

kind, from pottery and beds to paintings and frescoes,

proliferated to fill up interior spaces/^722 This new need

for objects not only redefined spending habits but

also changed the way the upper classes claimed their

place in society, that is, via a display of erudition,

taste, and splendor. In describing Niccolo Niccoli, the

wealthy fifteenth-century humanist and collector of art,

Vespasiano da Bisticci writes: "There was no house in

Florence that was more adorned than his or where there

were more refined things than in his, so that whoever

went there, whatever his interests, found an infinite

number of worthy things."^23

Although much of the maiolica that has survived in­

tact consists of the splendid items—"worthy things"—

that were carefully kept and displayed, other, less luxu­

rious pieces that have endured help illuminate not only

the vessels^7 significance but also the social practices

with which they were associated. The study of maiolica,

and of the minor arts in general, affords the opportunity

to understand better the daily life of various social

classes, since the objects were not destined solely for use

by courtly patrons and the Church.

One gets an idea of the role of courtship, matrimony,

and childbearing—and youth, beauty, hospitality, and

decorum—in Renaissance life when one considers the

often elaborate maiolica forms made to serve these social

practices and honor these ideals. Bella donna (beautiful

lady) plates and so-called coppe amatorie (love cups)

were often decorated with classicized busts of beautiful

women or heroic men or with a lover's portrait ac­

companied by a name or love motto; piatti da ballata

(party plates) were used to offer sweets to houseguests;

maiolica flasks, ewers, hnfrescatoi (coolers), and basins

held scented water offered to guests to wash their hands

and cooled wine glasses and bottles; and scodelle da

parto were vessels used by and given to pregnant women

or new mothers (fig. 16). These confinement dishes,

often used during the period immediately following

childbirth, could comprise various components—bowls,

a saltcellar, a trencher, sometimes an eggcup, and a

cover—pieced together in the shape of a vase. In these

dishes women would be served specials foods during

pregnancy and parturition.

In addition to its domestic use, maiolica was also

commissioned by and presented as prized gifts to the

aristocracy. Marchesa Isabella d^7 Este, Pope Julius II,

Pope Leo X, Grand Duke Cosimo I de^7 Medici, Duke

Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, and Duke Francesco Maria

Introduction 11