Maiolica dish from Urbino
A dish painted all over with a story from antiquity, like a painting on clay.
Urbino’s maiolica painters took subjects from Ovid and from prints after Raphael. The dishes were showpieces, not for eating from. Examples are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Bargello and the Wallace Collection.
Materials: Tin-glazed earthenware painted in high-fired colours
Manufacture: The painting was laid straight onto the unfired, powdery glaze and could not be corrected; all was fired together.
The picture covers the whole dish without a border – istoriato means storied.
The inscription under the foot naming the subject and sometimes the painter.