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Molded Dish with an Allegory of Love

Creator

Unknown All works by this person →More on Getty ULAN

Date: about 1535
Medium: Tin-glazed earthenware
Culture: Italian
Department: Decorative Arts
Institution: Getty Museum

An unknown potter formed this fluted dish called a *crespina,*meaning rippled or wrinkled, on a form or mold to imitate the shape of contemporary metalwork. The young man in the center of this decorative dish is bound to a tree. As he is bound to the tree, so he is bound by love. In keeping with this theme, a narrow, twisted rope encircles the central scene. This allegory of love as a bittersweet force that holds its victims captive was popular in sixteenth-century Italy.

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