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Florence - 1575 - 1587
Aiguière
© R.M.N. |
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Richelieu
1st Floor
Adolphe de Rothschild
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Renaissance decorative arts |
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| With their taste for rarity and luxury, the great Italian princes could not fail to admire Chinese porcelain. This fascination for porcelain explains the emergence of Medici porcelain, a sumptuous imitation of white Chinese porcelain with blue decoration. The Florentine porcelain workshop was founded by Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1575. It remained active until 1613, but most of its works were produced before the grand duke's death in 1587. Only sixty or so surviving pieces of Medici porcelain are known in the world today. Like the Louvre ewer, they often bear a hallmark under the base. This gadrooned ewer, highly Mannerist in form and with its spout in the form of a mask, shows the direction adopted by the Medici workshop, which shook off Far Eastern influences in order to espouse highly typical sixteenth-century Italian forms. Medici porcelain was the first chapter in the history of European porcelain.
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Continue into Room 26, "Salle Jean Bologne", where you will find two large tapestries hanging on the walls.
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