  
  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&acirc;&#128;&#153; 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&acirc;&#128;&#153;s death in childbirth. The magnificently sculptural winged masks on the handles warrant an attribution of the overall design to Bernardo Buontalenti (ca. 1531 &acirc;&#128;&#147; 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.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Soft paste porcelain with blue underglaze and manganese decoration
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 14 1/2 inches &Atilde;&#151; 9 inches (36.8 &Atilde;&#151; 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&acirc;&#128;&#153;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&acirc;&#128;&#148;no longer assigned&acirc;&#128;&#148;that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2000.85
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
  
  
  
