Plate with the Arms of the Pucci Family

1532

Plate with the Arms of the Pucci Family, 1532. Francesco Xanto Avelli (Italian, 1487?–1544?). Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica); diameter: 3.2 x 19 cm (1 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.626 Italian nobles of the 1500s often expressed their wealth, social status, and sophistication by ordering large sets of maiolica that sometimes carried their coats of arms or even likenesses, usually in profile as in portraits of the period. The Pucci family was a powerful noble household in Renaissance Florence who were at times quite close allies of the Medici, a prominent banking family. A more contemporary head of the family, Emilio Pucci, became famous as a fashion designer in the 1960s and 1970s.