Biography

Francesco Urbini was an Italian ceramicist active in Gubbio and Deruta in the 1530s. He was working in Gubbio between around 1531 and 1536. He was influenced by one of the most prolific painters of the 1530s, Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo.

In Deruta daily-use objects: jugs, bowls and dishes with geometrical and zoomorphic decorations were produced from the fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century maiolica from Deruta reached its apex of splendour, spreading to the main Italian cities. Artists such as Giacomo Mancini and Francesco Urbini signed works of art of great value. There is a whole repertory of designs with female figures, mythological scenes, battles and sacred images, decorated in many different ways.