Albarello

The albarello has a cylindrical body that tapers towards the foot and an oblique shoulder where the neck is set (missing). The container's cylindrical shape includes parallel blue lines separating the central body from the foot and shoulder. The stanniferous glaze decoration is cobalt blue, featuring spirals, rosettes, and plant motifs, leaving two large central sections opposite each other. Within these sections, two dogs are depicted: one walking to the left and the other crouching with a bone in its mouth.
This albarello is a notable example of Montelupo production, categorized as “Italo-Moorish” due to the dense decoration of Moorish inspiration. Fausto Berti has recently redefined its motifs (Berti 1997, tables 97–99) as “predominantly blue decorations with outlined figures.” This majolica demonstrates the transition from a medieval tradition of shapes and decorations mainly in brown and green to an early phase of the modern age with more complex decorative elements and extensive use of cobalt blue.
Fragments with similar decorations have been discovered during the excavation of the former Bellini kiln in Montelupo. A close resemblance can also be observed in an albarello (small sacred vessel) housed at the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza (Ravanelli Guidotti 1990, pp. 51–52, no. 16), where a portrait is depicted within the reserve. Additionally, in an analogous albarello from the Cora Collection, a monstrous figure is presented using the same compositional structure of the decoration (Bojani, Ravanelli Guidotti, Fanfani 1985, p. 177, no. 439).

Luca Pesante

Fair.

Bojani Gian Carlo, Ravanelli Guidotti Carmen, Fanfani Angiolo, La donazione Galeazzo Cora. Ceramiche dal Medioevo al XIX secolo, Milano 1985;
Ravanelli Guidotti Carmen, La donazione Angiolo Fanfani. Ceramiche dal Medioevo al XX secolo, Faenza 1990;
Berti Fausto, Storia della ceramica di Montelupo, vol. I, Montelupo 1997;
Bojani Gian Carlo (a cura di), Gaetano Ballardini e la ceramica a Roma. Le maioliche del Museo Artistico Industriale, catalogo della mostra (Faenza, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, 20 maggio-30 settembre 2000), Firenze 2000, n. 44.