Medici Porcelain Factory

Italian, 1574 - 1620

Explore Selected Works

Blue floral patterns adorn this bulb-shaped white flask made of imitation porcelain. The round opening at the top of the flask has a low lip. The rounded vessel tapers from wide shoulders to a narrower flared foot at the bottom. There are two handles on either side of the top opening and a short spout near the rim directly between them. The rim is decorated with dots set within squares, and the handles are painted with blue stripes.
Medici Porcelain Factory, Flask, c. 1575/1587, or slightly later, imitation porcelain (a version of soft-paste porcelain), Widener Collection, 1942.9.354

Flask

Medici Porcelain Factory · c. 1575/1587, or slightly later · imitation porcelain (a version of soft-paste porcelain) ·  Accession ID  1942.9.354

Bibliography

1882

  • Davillier, Jean Charles. Les origines de la porcelaine en Europe. Paris and London, 1882.

1902

  • Guasti, Gaetano. Di Cafaggiolo e d'altre fabbriche di ceramiche in Toscana, secondo studi e documenti in parte raccolti dal Comm. Gaetano Milanesi. Florence, 1902: 383-432.

1936

  • Liverani, Giuseppe. Catalogo delle porcellane dei Medici. Piccola Biblioteca del Museo delle Ceramiche in Faenza 2. Faenza, 1936 [introduction also printed in Faenza 24 (1936): 6-39].

1959

  • Liverani, Giuseppe. "Ampliamenti al catalogo delle porcellane medicee." Faenza 45 (1959): 6-12.

  • Liverani, Giuseppe. "Premières porcelaines européennes: les essais des Medicis." Cahiers de la céramique 15 (1959): 141-158.

1976

  • Lessmann, Johanna. "Polychromes Medici-Porzellan." Pantheon 34 (1976): 280-287.

1980

  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. "Porcellana medicea." In Palazzo Vecchio: committenza e collezionismo medicei. Exh. cat. Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, 1980: 181-186.

1984

  • Kingery, W. David, and Pamela B. Vandiver. "Medici porcelain." Faenza 70 (1984): 441-453.

1986

  • Cora, Galeazzo, and Angiolo Fanfani. La porcellana dei Medici. Milan, 1986.

  • Mottola Molfino, Alessandra. L'arte della porcellana in Italia. 2 vols. Busto Arsizio, 1986-1987, I:179-183.

1988

  • Le Corbeiller, Clare. "A Medici Porcelain Pilgrim Flask." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 16 (1988): 119-126.

1990

  • Spallanzani, Marco. "Medici Porcelain in the Collection of the Last Grand Duke." The Burlington Magazine 132 (1990): 316-320.

1993

  • Distelberger, Rudolf, Alison Luchs, Philippe Verdier, and Timonthy H. Wilson. Western Decorative Arts, Part I: Medieval, Renaissance, and Historicizing Styles including Metalwork, Enamels, and Ceramics. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1993: 234-237.