Maiolica before Raphael

Maiolica before the age of Raphael examines the origin of Italian maiolica and its evolution from c. 1350 up until 1500, a period which engendered some of the most rapid and exciting innovations in all ceramic art, before maiolica’s better known heyday in the High Renaissance. High Renaissance maiolica, produced in Italy in the orbit of Raphael and other artists, is widely known and has been extensively studied.This istoriato, or narrative, maiolica graces the collections of many of the world’s greatest museums.But not for almost 100 years has attention been focused on magnificent works that preceded it in the 14th and 15th centuries, which were at times prized by contemporary patrons more highly than precious metals. This new publication refocuses the spotlight of contemporary scholarship onto the birth of design in Italian maiolica, and its evolution from c. 1350 up until 1500. It was during this formative period that its characteristic tin-based glaze, with the pure and brilliant wh