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Sharing Images
Renaissance Prints into Maiolica and Bronza
The fifteenth century in Europe was an age of technological revolution. The development of the arts of printing images and books transformed the way Europeans shared and absorbed visual and verbal information. Produced in multiples, easily transportable, relatively affordable, and almost immediately employed as visual models, both prints and illustrated books influenced artists and craftsmen across the continent more profoundly than any other medium, and their impact was nowhere more conspicuous than in the production of maiolica (tin-glazed ceramics) and bronze plaquettes.
By the late 1400s, glazing techniques that had been developed and closely guarded for centuries by Islamic craftsmen were mastered by Italian potters. Their use of a tin glaze provided a pure white background for the pottery painters, who also benefited from a dramatic expansion of pigments available to them. The tin greatly reduced the chance of the glaze running when fired in a kiln, enabling artists to paint detailed scenes on ceramics known as istoriato ware (meaning painted with stories).
Around the same time, the interest in classical antiquity led Italian sculptors to revive the ancient art of bronzecasting and to make bronze statuettes and small, decorative plaques, which served as collectors' items, desk accessories, or decorative fittings for furniture or other objects. The creative interaction between these phenomena -- printed images, tin-glazed ceramics, and cast bronzes -- is the theme that runs through this exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art.
The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.
Additional funding is provided by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art. |