Jug: C.28-1991

Maker(s)

Pottery: Unidentified Orvieto pottery

Entities

• Jug

Categories

• Tin-glazed earthenware
• Maiolica

Description

Late Medieval maiolica jug, painted in manganese and green with a grid pattern on the sides and a leaf on the front.

Pale buff earthenware; the interior and lower part lead-glazed pale yellowish-brown; the rest tin-glazed greyish-white. Painted in manganese and copper-green.
Shape 7. Ovoid with flat base, cylindrical neck, applied folded spout and broad strap handle.
The spout and handle are flanked by three manganese lines forming side panels, each containing a grid of horizontal and vertical lines. There is a leaf on each side of the spout, and under it, a leaf on a coiling stem. The lower part is encircled by two manganese horizontal bands and the neck by three (mostly missing). The handle has five horizontal stripes in alternate colours.

Notes

History note: William Ridout; Christie's, 13 December 1938, The William Ridout collection of Italian majolica, European pottery, faience and delftware. part of lot 104 or 105; H.S. Reitlinger (d.1950); the Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead, from which transferred in 1991.

Legal notes

H.S. Reitlinger Bequest, 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1991-04-29) by Reitlinger, Henry Scipio

Dating

13th Century
14th Century
Medieval
Circa 1250 CE - 1350 CE

Note

Grid and check patterns, some more complex than here occur frequently on jugs made in Orvieto. The patterns are remi¬niscent of the bed covers shown in paintings of the first half of the fourteenth cen¬tury, such as Pietro Lorenzetti's predella of The Dream of Sobach from his altar¬piece of 1329 for the church of the Carmelites in Siena, now in the Pina¬coteca, Siena, or his Birth of the Virgin of 1342 in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena. A jug with a larger check pattern on the sides is in the Museo del Duomo, Orvieto (MIBAC 10/00153795)

School or Style

maiolica arcaica