Vase - Ceramic - Albarello, 16th century

Albarello from Montelupo Fiorentino dating to the late 16th century (circa 1580–1590).
Albarello with polychrome decoration in the “evolved Persian palmette” motif and concentric bands at the foot, shoulder, and neck in yellow, manganese, orange, green, and blue. The palmettes appear set in a dense lozenge lattice with rosettes at the intersections. Yellowish body clay. In the 17th century the palmette is noted as being increasingly lighter in the principal pigment (cf. Fausto Berti, Storia della ceramica di Montelupo, vol. II, p. 191), hence the deep blue of the Renaissance versions gives way to a cobalt diluted in bluish tones: see the pair of albarelli in the last image.
Height: 27 cm; greatest diameter: 13.3 cm; neck diameter: 10.5 cm; base diameter: 10.5 cm; weight: 1.040 kg. Good condition; only a small firing defect at the edge of the shoulder and a hole in the bottom as the object had been filled with earth and used to grow flowers. SHIPPING ONLY TO EU.