Italian Maiolica And Other Early Modern Ceramics In The Courtauld Gallery

Majolica is one of the most revealing expressions of Renaissance art. Its extraordinary range of colours retains the vibrancy it had when it left the potter's kiln; Italian ceramists absorbed techniques and forms from the Islamic world and incorporated ornaments and subjects from the art of ancient Rome.

In the Courtauld Collection, all the major faience centres of the Renaissance are represented, including Siena, Faenza and Venice. The collection includes a group of vessels made during the High Renaissance, the golden age of Italian maiolica, lustre objects by Deruta with images derived from Perugino and Raphael, and vessels painted in a narrative style of painting on ceramics known as 'istoriato'.

This book, the first catalogue of the Courtauld Gallery's majolica collection, contains an introductory essay on Italian Renaissance majolica, and an essay on the Victorian collector Thomas Gambier Parry that sheds new light on the development of the collection. The works in the Courtauld Gallery's collection illustrate the skills of the artists and ceramic painters who worked at the time of Raphael and Titian.