Italian Renaissance Maiolica

The decorative arts, including ceramics, had an important place in the cultural world of Renaissance Italy. They incorporated images that reflected Renaissance thinking, and were displayedas reflections of their owners’ taste, education and status in urban houses, palaces and country villas. Ceramics offer insight into how Renaissance ideas could be found in the everyday lives of the 15th- and 15th-century merchants, churchmen, and members of the nobility who first owned the objects in this gallery.

A new type of earthenware had been introduced to Italy in the 11th century, and gradually became widespread. It was distinguished by its tin glazes or tin-opacified glazes—glazes made white and opaque by the addition of tin. Tin-glazed earthenware become known in italy as maiolica.

Italian eramic artists invented a new way of decorating tin-glazed earthenware at the beginning of the 16th century. They painted ceramic objects with scenes from stories taken from classicl, biblical or secular sources, using newly developed artistic techniques and colour technology. When the pieces were fired, the colours on the maiolica fused permanently with the glazes, and they have not faded over time; these dishes and vessels provide an opportunity to see sophisticated Renaissance paintings that are as vibrant today as they were when the artists painted them hundreds of years ago.