UNKNOWN POTTER, Italian
(active 1500s in Castel Durante)

Bowl

1508
Terracotta, diameter 32 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Technically and artistically, this large bowl is one of the masterpieces of Italian maiolica. The centre is occupied by the coat-of-arms of Pope Julius II crowned by symbols of papal authority. An inscription on the back states that the bowl was made in Castel Durante by the potter Giovanni Maria in 1508, making this the first known signed piece of maiolica.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.