3E Unknown artist. Niche of the Sacred Oils (detail). Spilimbergo, Italy, Spilimbergo cathedral, Cappella Maggiore. Photo: Elio and Stefano Ciol, Casarsa PN.
As can be seen in this fresco, the Getty's maiolica jug could have had an ecclesiastical function.
maiolica that vary only slightly from Ballardini's schema (Cora 1973, 1:
33). One must remember, however, that while useful, the conventional
ized terms employed by Ballardini and others can prove misleading, es
pecially when used to identify the subjects of decorative motifs. Anna
Moore Valeri (1984, 490-91, no. 62) has pointed out, for example, that
the "Persian palmette" bears no resemblance to a palmette and that in
the Near East the "peacock-feather" motif originally had no connection
with peacocks, symbolizing instead the rising sun.. See Cora 1973, 2: figs. 6c, 8a-b, 11, 13a, 3 ia-d, 32, 33, 3 ioa-c,
3i3a-d, 318b; Francovich 1982, 28, 30-33, 36-37, 53, 95 passim.
. See Cora 1973, 2: figs. 8a-b, 44c, 5 ia, 64b, 6sa-c, 69a, 69C-d, 7oa-c,
7ia-c, 137a, 138a, 309a-c.
. Mazza 1983, 61, 92, 94, 114, 133, 137, 144 passim.
. Ravanelli Guidotti 1998 , 89-90, 113-15, nos. 7, 14.
. Mallet 1998, 10, 210, no. 4; see, for example, Mazza 1983, 114,
no. 146.
. One knows of works decorated with typical relief-blue leaves, dots,
and animals painted in a thin copper green glaze, as on this jug, instead
of the much more common thick cobalt pigment (Giacomotti 1974,
10-11, fig. 28). Cora (1973, 2: pi. 21a) reproduces an early fifteenth-
century Florentine fragment displaying similarly shaped and outlined
leaves, also painted in copper green.
3 4 5 6 7 8- According to Cora's classification of early Florentine ceramics, zaffera a
rilievo (his group V) dates from ca. 1410-50 and zaffera diluita (diluted
or thin-blue) (his group VI) dates from ca. 1410-80 (Cora 1973, 1:
73-83). - Valeri 1984, 477-78.
- Mallet 1998, 210.
- Compare, for example, a mid-fifteenth-century archaic jug decorated
with leaves in copper green pigment from Viterbo (Galeazzi and Valen-
tini 1975,108-9) and a Tuscan jug with similar decoration but in
zaffera diluita (Bojani, Ravanelli Guidotti, and Fanfani 1985, no. 706).
For a similar jug with a "pecking bird" but painted in relief cobalt blue,
see Cora 1973, 2: pis. 64b, 65a-c. - For examples of Islamic animal motifs, see Kiihnel 1971, figs. 51 , 84,
88, 90; Kiihnel 1925, pi. 99. For bird motifs on Hispano-Moresque
works see Gonzalez Marti 1944-52, 1: figs, 150, 153, 183, 192, 277,
280, 356, 459, 494-96, 538, 612, 631, 640, 648-52, 700; 2: 472-
78 , figs. 556-63, 668, 670, 678-80, 689-91. - First discussed in Wallis 1900, ix-xxx; most recently examined in
Spallanzani 1978, 100-102; Valeri 1984 , 477-500.
Green-Painted Jug with a Bird 3 5