Italian maiolica table services: for use or for display?

Professor Timothy Wilson

Around 1500 Italian maiolica potters created what was essentially a new form of Renaissance art, painted pottery which at times rivalled easel-painting and fresco. But were the maiolica services commissioned by some of the wealthiest and most discriminating patrons of the day just for display or were they regularly used? The lecture will examine this vexed question. 

Haughton International Ceramics Seminar 2017 at Christie's