4c Lorenzo Monaco (Italian, 1370/75 i-1425/30?). The Madonna and
Child with Six Saints (detail). Florence, Fondazione Home. From
Federico Zeri, Giorno per giorno nella pitura (Turin, 1988). Courtesy
Allemandi & Co. The lavish fabric covering the floor in this scene has
a decoration—paired animals on a winding foliate ground—similar to
that on the Getty jar. In particular, the addorsed birds recall the Harpies
on the Getty example, who turn their heads to look back toward one
another.
4D Domenico Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1448/49-1494). The Last Supper
(detail), late fifteenth century. Florence, Chiesa di Ognissanti. Photo:
Scala/Art Resource, New York. Simple fabrics, such as this so-called
"towel from Perugia" serving as table linen, also featured patterns of
paired animals. Here the animals are fantastic creatures, like the Getty
jar's Harpies.
leaves.^4 Others, however, have described the painted
decoration as grape, walnut, turkey oak, or ivy leaves.
According to one scholar, this type of ornamentation
was adapted in Florence from Hispano-Moresque ce
ramic decoration of vines and feathered leaves, which,
when painted with the Florentine thick blue impasto,
became simplified to resemble oak leaves.^5 The Hispano-
Moresque basin in the Museum's collection (no. 2), for
example, displays this type of Spanish ceramic decora
tion, especially prevalent in Valencia. Recent scholar
ship, however, favors connecting this leaf decoration
with earlier textile patterns, architectural motifs, and
illuminated manuscript border embellishment rather
than with Hispano-Moresque sources.^6 Arguably the
most convincing line of reasoning traces this Tuscan leaf
pattern on early maiolica to local silk (fig. 4c) and linen
(fig. 4D) damasks that were, in turn, influenced by Is
lamic fabrics, such as those of the Turkish Mamluks.^7
The marks below each handle—a P, possibly inter
twined with a backward C—may indicate the Florentine
workshop of Piero di Mazzeo and company, active at theRelief-Blue Jar with Harpies and Birds 39