Page 172 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

53 nizable to the Christian patrons. This seems

LUSTERWARE VASE WITH particularly remarkable in the cases in which such
designs surround
specifically Christian themes,
COAT OF ARMS OF THE MEDICI such as the sacred monogram of pieces commis-
sioned for use in a church or convent. Other pat-
c. 1465-1475
Hispano-Moresque terns derive from plants and leaves and flowers;
earthenware ivy, acacia, trumpet flowers, and bryony are often
2
height 57 (22 /s) worked in gold and blue lusters over the primary
references: Frothingham 1951, 2, 3; Caiger-Smith glaze of creamy white. s. s.
*973' 7'' Caiger-Smith 1985, 101,107-108
The Trustees of the British Museum, London

This wing-handled vase (in the shape called a
terras), which bears the arms of the Medici fam- 54
ily, was meant to hold a bouquet of flowers. Such
vases were often used on altars and in shrines. LUSTERWARE PASSOVER PLATE
This splendid example must have been commis-
sioned by Piero "The Gouty" or his son and suc- c. 1480
cessor Lorenzo il Magnifico, because the shield Hispano-Moresque
earthenware
bears seven balls (palle), one decorated with the diameter 57 (22 /s)
3
French fleur-de-lis, an addition granted to Piero references: Roth 1964, no; Katz 1968,160;
by Louis xi of France in 1465. The rest of the vase Davidovitch 1975, 51-54; Avrin 1979, -27-46
is covered in a delicate ivy pattern in lustered
gold and cobalt blue. Spaniards, but by important persons in Italy, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Lusterware, along with other luxury items such France, and the Low Countries. Entire sets of din-
as silk worked with gold, was brought to Spain nerware were ordered for royal palaces, and His- This Passover plate is one of very few preserved
from the Middle East as early as the late tenth pano-Moresque lusterware was also bought by Jewish artifacts that originated in Spain prior to
century, as is evidenced by fragments of gold- merchants, apothecaries, religious communities, the expulsion in 1492. Shaped and decorated in a
lustered pottery found at sites around Cordoba and churches. Lustered tiles decorated floors, way typical of contemporary Spanish lusterware
where the Islamic Caliph himself once lived walls, and ceilings. According to one fifteenth- plates, it has a wide rim, flat bottom, and an ele-
(Frothingham 1951, 2). When the difficult process century observer, Hispano-Moresque lusterware vated umbo in the center. It is decorated with
of luster-glazing was employed by Muslim arti- was so highly prized that "the Pope himself and repeated motifs of gadroons and various floral and
sans in Spain, it was used as painted decoration on the Cardinals and Princes of the world all covet it, geometric designs in brownish-gold and cobalt
vessels that were first glazed in opaque white: and are amazed that anything so excellent and blue. There is a hole in the brim, in which a clay
noble could be made from common clay" (Caiger- peg was probably inserted to keep the large dish in
Either metallic copper and silver mixed with Smith 1973, 7). The Medici, arguably the most an upright position during one of the firings, as
sulphur or the bisulphides of these metals discerning artistic patrons of the era, evidently was customary in the process of producing large
. . . were calcined to form copper and silver concurred. Valencian plates.
oxides. The compound was ground and mixed Lusterware was originally developed in Dr. Leila Avrin, who has published an extensive
with red ochre, which contained ferric oxide, response to the Islamic hadith, which condemned study on this plate, has hypothesized that it was
and then fluxed with vinegar and painted on the use of gold and silver vessels. Although it commissioned by a Jewish lead merchant from the
the white-glazed earthenware. The vessels were mimicked such sumptuous items in a more town of Murviedro, near Manises, in exchange for
given another firing to reduce the oxides to the humble material, lusterware itself was certainly a the merchant's ware, one of the ingredients of the
metallic state, this time at a low temperature luxury. It was never, however, merely decorative; glaze. This suggestion could explain the naive
and in a reduction kiln. When they emerged, each of the various shapes reflects a practical use. spelling mistakes that appear in the Hebrew
they were blackened, but with rubbing, the Goblets were drunk from, and even the most inscription. According to Avrin "the client, who
coating was removed, and the decorated parts magnificent plates were designed to hold food. was not expert in spelling and who could not
appeared as metallic silver, copper, or gold During a feast, the grand pieces bearing heraldic afford the quality of the plates made for royalty or
(Frothingham 1951, 3). emblems, which ordinarily graced walls and side- nobility, provided the potter, possibly Jaime
boards, were pressed into action for service at Murci, with the inscription, and the decorator did
The earliest production of lusterware in Spain table (Caiger-Smith 1985, 107-108). his best to write and space the unfamiliar letters
was in Andalusia, and it was long referred to as Malaga, Manises, Paterna, and Valencia were aesthetically." (Avrin 1979, 45-56) The inscrip-
"Malaga-ware" in contracts and inventories. the centers of lusterware during the fifteenth cen- tion refers to the three main elements of the Pass-
However, Moorish craftsmen also migrated north tury, and the finest work was produced between over Feast, following Rabban Gamliel: Pesah
to practice their craft in the Christian kingdoms, 1440 to 1480. Not a single piece of lusterware (paschal lamb); mazzah (unleavened bread); and
and the fame of their skill soon spread; as early as from that golden age is known to have been maror (bitter herb). The word seder (order) refers
1362 a Moorish ceramist in Manises, near Valen- signed by the artist who made it, but many pieces to the special home ceremony on the first night of
cia, was contracted to produce floor tiles for the bear the heraldry of the high ranking individuals Passover. In Hebrew the inscription reads:
papal palace at Avignon (Caiger-Smith 1985, 101). who commissioned them. These heraldic devices -rra yxQ 109 -no
The number of ceramists in Spain, who were form the centerpiece of an overall design that with mistakes both in spelling and vocalization. It
largely Moorish, multiplied during the fifteenth often incorporates signs and symbols from Moor- was obviously intended to read:
century, and their product was sought not only by ish tradition, which would have been unrecog- THO nso nos no

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 1/1