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

hospital.^15 Established around the tenth century, the

hospital became increasingly important and was de­

scribed in the sixteenth century as "the most beautiful

in the world."^16 On May 17, 1316, the Florentine town

council authorized the opening of a branch in the Tuscan

capital on what was to be called via della Scala. The Flo­

rentine branch became prominent, maintaining almost

complete autonomy until 1535, when it was combined

with the Florentine Ospedale degli Innocenti.^17 Since ap­

parently all Tuscan branches of the Santa Maria della

Scala hospital used the cross-and-ladder emblem, one

cannot be certain for which branch the present jar was

produced. Maiolica products displaying the emblem in­

clude mid-fifteenth-century two-handled drug jars^18 and

mid-sixteenth-century dishes.^19

Notes

1. Bojani, Ravanelli Guidotti, and Fanfani 1985, 1: nos. 181, 222,
   225, 707-


2. The liquid pigment includes a large proportion of lead.


3. Argnani 1898; Bode 1898, 206-17.


4. Wallis 1903, xx. Both Bode (1898) and Wallis (1903) published the
   present jar.


5. Hausmann 1972, 96.


6. Valeri 1984, 490-93; Valeri 1996, 128-32; Wardwell 1976-77,
   177-226.


7. Wardwell 1976-77, especially 186-87.


8. Roncaglia 1992, 16-17.


9. Roncaglia 1992, 17.


10. Cora 1973, 1: 76; Roncaglia 1992, 16.


11. See, for example, Soler et al. 1992, nos. 92, 94, 107, 113, 116, 118,
    122-24; Mazza 1983, nos. 81, 182, 193, 205.


12. Wallis 1903, 22, fig. 20; Chompret 1949, 2: fig. 635; Bode 1911, 1 4
    right; sale cat., Sotheby's 1965 , lot 19.


13. Inv. OA 3982; Giacomotti 1974, 12-13, no. 30.


14. Cora 1973, 2: fig. 68; Conti 1971A, no. 509; Bojani, Ravanelli Guidotti,
    and Fanfani 1985, 276, no. 707.


15. Park 1985, 104, no. 60.


16. Bellucci and Torriti 1991, 46; this source also discusses medical
    arrangements at the hospital (44-50).


17. Cora 1973, 1: 76.


18. Cora 1973, 2: figs. 91, 92c.


19. See Ballardini 1933, 1: nos. 64-67; Rackham 1940, 1: nos. 642-43.

Relief-Blue Jar with Harpies and Birds 41