Storage Jar (Vaso a Palla)

c. 1560–80

Storage Jar (Vaso a Palla), c. 1560–80. Circle of Domenego da Venezia (Italian). Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica); average: 25.4 cm (10 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., for the Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection 1939.178 During the Italian Renaissance of the 1400s and 1500s, nobles and merchants eager to express their wealth and sophistication ordered ceramics for dining, display, and storage. Known as maiolica, because it resembled the brightly colored ceramics from the Mediterranean island of Majorca, these ceramic vessels were covered with a tin glaze that provided an opaque white surface on which colorful decoration could be painted. In contrast to a pharmacy jar, this Vaso a Palla (globular or round-shaped jar), likely served a more domestic function and may have held oil or preserved fruits and nuts.