Cleveland Museum of Art

Dish with a Lion

Date

c. 1430–50

Medium

tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Culture

Italy, Florence, 15th century

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This dish is representative of the rustic type of maiolica produced in Italy before 1450. The design is much inspired by contemporary Spanish earthenware. The surface of the dish is painted in a cobalt blue impasto technique known as zaffera a rilevo. Lions frequently adorn wares decorated in this technique and are particularly appropriate as a Florentine motif-they probably refer to that city's lion emblem.

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