Tazza cover

Unknown

mid-16th century · Lead-glazed earthenware inlaid with slip, with molded ornament · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The decoration is a translation into pottery of mid-sixteenth-century engraved ornament originally derived from Italian sources but thoroughly naturalized in France by the mid-sixteenth century. The applied ornament is also found in contemporary goldsmiths' work, not only in France but also in such international centers as Praque and Nürnberg. The pictorial motif of a child playing a viol on the inner side was achieved by filling an impressed line with dark clay and then adding tints of blue and green lead glazes. An intricate pattern of interlacing bands and vines serves as a backdrop for leaf and lizard ornaments radiating from the finial; the seated child at the top is mostly a replacement. On the underside is an image of a putto playing a viol; music-playing children appear in Fontainebleau’s Galerie François Ier (1533–40) and in the prints it inspired.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-16th century

Medium

Lead-glazed earthenware inlaid with slip, with molded ornament

Culture

French, Saint-Porchaire or Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917