with Brunelleschi's cathedral cupola.^16 He consulted a
passage on Ginori porcelain in Marco Lastri's L'osserva-
tore fiorentino to discover that the Medici had produced
objects of porcelain at the end of the sixteenth century
"non senza merito" (not without merit) and that
"v'e ancora chi ne conserva qualche pezzo, e porta il
segno della Cupola della Metropolitana nel rovescio,
colla lettera F" (fig. 3 6D) (a few pieces, marked with the
cathedral's dome and the letter F, are still kept in private
collections).^17 Foresi published his discovery, arousing
a passion for this rare porcelain among European and
American collectors.^18
One finds the largest collections of Medici porcelain
in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (nine
pieces); the Musee National de Ceramique, Sevres (eight
pieces); the British Museum, London (four pieces); and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (four
pieces).^19 Only three other Medici porcelain pilgrim
flasks are known to exist: two are in the Musee du
Louvre, Paris, and display typically Chinese-influenced
landscape decoration,- one is in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, with a candelieh grotesque decora
tion and, like the present work, applied masks for the lat
eral loops. Only the Getty Museum's flask displays the
Medici porcelain factory mark of a cathedral dome and
the letter F (for Francesco I de' Medici) on the underside.
The cathedral-dome mark is particularly large and beau
tifully painted, with exceptional attention to detail. The
other flasks are unmarked, although the underside of one
of the Louvre flasks (inv. OA 3103) is inscribed with the
word prova (trial), suggesting that it was an early experi
mental piece.^20
Notes
- For a concise discussion of the history and development of Medici
porcelain and its appeal in sixteenth-century Italy see Lightbown 1980,
458-65. - Spallanzani 1990, 316-17, 319.
- Le Corbeiller 198 8A, 126.
- See Spallanzani 1994, 130; Mallet 1998, 260, no. 24.
- See, for example, Rackham 1959, pis. 20-96; Fiocco et al. 1986, 66-69;
Savage and Newman 1985, 159. - For an incisive and thorough examination of the Medicis' love for and
extensive collection of Eastern, especially Chinese, ceramics, see
Spallanzani 1978; Spallanzani 1980, 73-94; according to these sources,
documents establish that the Medicis' collection of Chinese ceramics
numbered around four hundred in 1553 and far exceeded their collection
of native (Faentine and Urbinate) ceramics.
7. One scholar believes that Egyptian ceramics, rather than Turkish,
might have been a more probable source of inspiration for Medici porce
lain designs (M. Rogers as cited in National Gallery 1993, 238 n. 9).
- These terms most often indicate Far Eastern and Near Eastern (via the
market in Damascus) ceramics, respectively. Further confusing matters,
many Chinese wares arrived in Italy via the Islamic world and were of
ten not distinguished from the Islamic ceramics that accompanied them
to Italy. See Spallanzani 1978, especially chaps. 2-3. - Spallanzani 1978, 49-5 5.
- Spallanzani 1978, 55-68.
- Lorenzetti 1920, 248; Schmidt 1922, fig. 56.
- Campori 1871 , 31-33; Lane 1954, 2-3.
- Lane 1954, 3.
- A curious addendum to Medici porcelain production before the late sev
enteenth century consists of two small porcelaneous bowls in the Victo
ria and Albert Museum, London, inscribed I.G.P.F. 1627 and G.C.P.F.
1638 (Lane 1954, 6-7, figs. 4a-b). Arthur Lane (1954, 6-7) believes that
they may have been executed in Padua, but no evidence proving or dis
proving either their origin or date has been found. - Spence recounts that Foresi "got from me a very valuable specimen of
the very early blue and white Florentine china. It was brought to my
studio by a man for sale. I thought it was Chinese and kept my brushes
in it. Nobody seemed to notice or value it. Now, Foresi had read about
the china made by the Grand Duke Francesco and the mark of the
cupola of Florence and had examined the piece once or twice and saw
the mark. He comes to the studio one day and, after praising my paint
ing, says, 'What do you do with that bit of china? It will be broken very
soon. Sell it to me.' I said, 'It cost me 30 lire. You may have it for the
same.' 'Thirty-five lire/ said he and pulled out the money. He wrapped
up the bit of china—a sort of hunting flask—and departed in a great
hurry. A few days later I heard he had sold it to Freppa for 1,500 francs.
Rothschild bought it from Freppa for, I think, 3 or 4,000 francs" (British
Museum Add MSS.89900.270, as cited in Fleming 1979, 50 5 n. 81. For
more information on Spence see Fleming 1979, 492-508; Callmann
(^1) 999/ 338-48; Kerr-Lawson 1904, 310-11).
16. Such as on a large plate of ca. 1745 in the Musee des arts decoratifs,
Paris (Ginori Lisci 1963, 48, 248-49, fig. 24, no. 6). The mark on a
Medici porcelain plate in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche,
Faenza, was even misidentified as belonging to the Doccia factory as re
cently as 1998 (Burresi 1998, 19).
- Lastri 1821, 1: 194-95.
- Foresi 1869, 15-18 (reprinted from Piovano Arlotto [July 1859]).
- Most of the Medici objects known to exist are reproduced in Cora and
Fanfani 1986. - Other Medici porcelain marks include F surrounded by the letters
M.M.D.E. II, for "Franciscus Medicis Magnus Dux Etruriae Secundus"
(on a ewer in the Louvre), and six balls inscribed F M M E D II, for
"Franciscus Medicis Magnus Etruriae Dux Secundus" (on a plate in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and on a large ewer in the Baron Elie de
Rothschild collection, Paris).
Pilgrim Flask 203