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

3

Green-Painted Jug

with a Bird

Southern Tuscany or possibly

northern Lazio

Early fifteenth century

Tin-glazed earthenware

H: 25 cm (9% in.)

Diam (at lip): 9.5 cm (3% in.)

W (max.): 16.2 cm (6^3 /8 in.)

84.DE.9 5

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS

None.

CONDITION

A chip in the base; minor chips on the handle and

rim; three apparent chips around the central sec­

tion are areas of the clay body on which deposits

of calcined lime or other impurities have expanded

and "popped out/' or exploded, during firing.

PROVENANCE

Private collection, the Netherlands,- [Rainer Zietz,

Ltd., London, sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum,

1984].

EXHIBITIONS

None.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GettyMusJ 13 (1985): 239-40, no. 155; Hess

1988A, no. 3; Summary Catalogue 2001, no. 342.

FORMED OF an ovoid body, strap handle, flared rim, and

pinched spout, this jug (or brocca) is a simple yet elegant

piece because of its gently attenuated shape^1 and strongly

rendered surface decoration. A long-beaked bird stands

on the ground line, from which sprouts foliage, against a

background of berries and dots in copper green and man­

ganese brown pigments. The interior is lead glazed.

The oldest piece of maiolica in the Museum's col­

lection, this jug corresponds to the archaic style, accord­

ing to Gaetano Ballardini's classification.^2 The archaic

style prevailed from roughly the thirteenth to the begin­

ning of the fifteenth century and is generally character­

ized by simple motifs—initials, coats of arms, stylized

animals—painted in copper green outlined in manganese

brown. Like the present work, archaic-style maiolica

jugs from southern Tuscany commonly display a guil-

loche pattern encircling the neck and parallel lines di­

viding the piece into decorative panels.^3 Also popular

was the motif of a single bird, often portrayed pecking at

a berry or leaf (fig. 3c).^4 In addition, examples of simi­

larly shaped or comparably decorated ceramics have

been excavated in northern Lazio or are attributed to

makers there.^5

Although similar objects—jugs decorated with a

single bird—have been found in Faentine excavations,^6

the preponderance of the most closely related material

derives from the area comprising northern Lazio and

southern Tuscany. A plate in the Hockemeyer collection,

Bremen, decorated in green with a single bird surrounded

by berries and leaves, is believed to have been excavated

at Orvieto, and other examples have been attributed

to makers in Viterbo.^7 In addition, the rather thickly

painted green glaze and the appearance of berries and

lobed leaves relate this decoration to the relief-blue

[zaffera a rilievo) embellishment popular in southern

Tuscany primarily in the second quarter of the fifteenth

century (see nos. 4-5, 7-9).^8

Indeed, the connections between earlier archaic ce­

ramics and zaffera a rilievo products may be more direct

than initially thought. Traditionally, all ceramics of the

relief-blue typology were dated to the fifteenth century.^9

Recent archaeological excavations in Tuscany have un­

earthed zaffera wares together with fourteenth-century

archaic types, however, so that one can be certain that

relief-blue works were already being produced in the sec­

ond half of the fourteenth century.^10 It has been sug­

gested that, since the blue pigment of relief-blue ware

contains copper as well as cobalt, the less precious relief-

green variant may have resulted from simply omitting

the cobalt.^11 Although the present jug is not painted with

a thick impasto, its typology may relate more closely to

relief-blue decoration than was previously believed.^12

Once thought to be derived directly from Islamic and

Islamic-inspired ceramic decoration,^13 the stylized ani­

mal designs—including lions, hares, leopards, and dogs

as well as birds—on Italian wares appear to have been

based instead on local textiles and other decorative arts

of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. These products

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