Ewer (brocca)

between 1575 and 1578

Medici Manufactory Italian, active 1575 - 1587

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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Markings

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

This lavishly decorated ewer (brocca) is among the largest and most ambitious of the 59 known surviving pieces of so-called Medici porcelain, which was the first successfully produced porcelain anywhere in Europe. Previously Europeans had been attempting, without success, to replicate the delicate translucency of Chinese porcelain, since exported wares began to make their way into European court collections earlier in the sixteenth century. Grand-Duke Francesco I de’ Medici of Tuscany and his wife, Giovanna of Austria, whose coats of arms appear on this vase, were patrons of the first of these groundbreaking experiments at the Medici Manufactory in Florence. The armorials date the ewer between 1575, the year of the earliest documented European porcelain, and 1578, the year of Giovanna’s death in childbirth. The magnificently sculptural winged masks on the handles warrant an attribution of the overall design to Bernardo Buontalenti (ca. 1531 – 1608), head of the Medici workshops and a talented designer. The ewer had been in the Rothschild family collections in Paris for over 150 years before the museum acquired it.

Title Ewer (brocca)

Artwork Date between 1575 and 1578

Artist Medici Manufactory

Life Dates active 1575 - 1587

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Soft paste porcelain with blue underglaze and manganese decoration

Dimensions Overall: 14 1/2 inches × 9 inches (36.8 × 22.9 cm)

Classification Ceramics

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, New Endowment Fund, Henry Ford II Fund, Benson and Edith Ford Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Buhl Ford II Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Horace E. Dodge Memorial Fund, Josephine and Ernest Kanzler Fund; gifts from Mrs. Horace E. Dodge, Mrs. Russell A. Alger, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, Robert H. Tannahill, Julie E. Peck, Ralph Harman Booth, Mrs. Alvin Macauley, Sr., Albert Kahn, Mr. and Mrs. Trent McMath, K.T. Keller, Mrs. Edsel B. Ford, Arnold Seligman, William Buck and Mary Chase Stratton, Mrs. Sydney D. Waldon, Mr. and Mrs. William E. Scripps, Ernest and Josephine Kanzler, Dr. and Mrs. Reginald Harnett, Elizabeth Parke Firestone, and City of Detroit by exchange

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2000.85

Markings

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

Made for Franceso I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife, Johanna of Austria, between 1575 and 1578

by descent, Gian Gastone de' Medici (died 1737), the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

included in the auction on 1772 of European and Asian ceramics from the Medici collection held at the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Baron Gustave de Rothschild, Paris (1829-1911), by 1859

by descent, Baron Robert de Rothschild, (1880-1946) Paris

by descent, Baron Elie de Rothschild (born 1917), Paris

acquired from the Rothschild family through Adrian Sassoon (dealer), London.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Florence. Guardaroba Medicea, 1301 bis, fol. 175r, dated 1691.

Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Florence. Guardaroba Medicea, 1326, fol. 376r, dated 1721.

Jacquemart, A. “La Porcelaine des Medicis.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 3-4 (July-December 1859): 284.

Darcel, H. “Les faiences francaises et les porcelaines au Trocadero.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 18 (November 1878): 762.

Garnier, E. La Porcelaine tendre de Sevres. Paris, n.d. (1889?), fig. 1.

Liverani, G. Catalogo delle porcellane dei Medici. Faenza, 1936, pp. 18-19, no. 9.

Liverani, G. "Premières porcelaines européennes: les essais des Médicis". Cahiers De La Céramique Et Des Arts Du Feu: Revue Trimestrielle. 1959: 141-158.

Cooper, D. Great Private Collections. London, 1965, p. 175.

Cora, G. and A. Fanfani. La porcellana dei Medici. Milan, 1986, pp. 23, 98-99.

Gonzales-Palacios, A. Il tempio del gusto: Le arti decorative in Italia fra classicismi e barocco. Milan, 1986, p. 214, fig. 409.

Spallanzani, M. Ceramiche alla Corte dei Medici nel Cinquecento. Modena, 1994, p. 71, pl. 26.

Darr, A., P. Barnet, A. Bostrom, with contributions by C. Avery, et al. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. 1. London, 2002, cat. 106.

Darr, A. "Francesco I de' Medici, Bernardo Buontalenti and a Medici Porcelain Ewer in Detroit." In Arte Collezionismo Convervazione: Scritti In Onore Di Marco Chiarini. Florence, 2004, pp. 219-224.

Darr, A. and B. Gallagher. "Recent acquisitions (2000-2006) of European sculpture and decorative arts at The Detroit Institute of Arts.” The Burlington Magazine 149 (June 2007): 449, pl. I (ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 87, no. 1/4 (2013): cat. no. 37.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Medici Manufactory, Ewer (brocca), between 1575 and 1578, soft paste porcelain with blue underglaze and manganese decoration. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, New Endowment Fund, et al., 2000.85.