Childbirth Set

ca. between 1560 and 1570

Fontana Workshop Italian, 1500-1700

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

In Renaissance Italy parturition or birthing sets were used to serve nourishing food—such as meat broth—to women confined to bed during pregnancy and after childbirth. These sets generally consisted of five or more pieces, including various bowls, a tray, a saltcellar, and a pierced cover, all of which fit together in a baluster form when not in use. This set, preserving three pieces, is the largest surviving example.
The painted decoration on each piece depicts a scene in a bedchamber immediately following birth: bathing, swaddling, and nursing the newborn infant. Lively “grotesques,” typical of the maiolica workshop of Orazio Fontana in Urbino, fill the remaining surfaces.

Title Childbirth Set

Artwork Date ca. between 1560 and 1570

Artist Fontana Workshop

Life Dates 1500-1700

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. ----------

Medium Tin-glazed earthenware with enamel decoration

Dimensions Overall: 1/2 × 6 7/8 inches (1.3 × 17.5 cm)

Classification Ceramics

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II Fund

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. 59.124.B

Markings

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Provenance

Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild (Vienna, Austria);
sold by (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, New York, USA);
1959-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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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

Bojani, G.C. Ceramica Nelle Marche. Bergamo, 1988, p. 131 (ill.).

Catalog Nathaniel Rothschld. Vienna, 1903, no. 147.

Dennis, Jessie McNab. "Ceramics and Glass." The Triumph of Humanism. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. San Francisco, 1977 (fig. 91).

Grigaut, P.L. "Two Pieces of Ceramic." Bulletin of the DIA 38, no. 4 (1958/59): pp. 85-87, p. 86 (ill.).

The Triumph of Humanism. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. San Francisco, ca. 1977, pp. 65, 89, no. 165.

Musacchio, Jacqueline Marie. The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy. ca. 1999, pp. 126-127, no. 116.

Musacchio, Jacqueline Marie. Marvels of Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics from the Corcoran Gallery of Art Collection. 2004, p. 53, no. 39.

Bayer, A., et al. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat. New York, 2008, cat. no. 84a-c, pp. 172-174.

Bulletin of the DIA 87, no. 1/4: Italian Renaissance and Later Ceramics (2013): cat. no. 23.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

attributed to Fontana Workshop, Childbirth Set, ca. between 1560 and 1570, tin-glazed earthenware with enamel decoration. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford II Fund, 59.124.B.