Earthly Delights: Illusory Pottery and Renaissance Dining

• In Event: Renaissance Food History IV: Performing Food in Art

Abstract

This paper examines three categories of sixteenth-century ceramics that employed illusory techniques to impress, surprise, and even deceive viewers in the context of dining in Italy and France. The first category of lusterware provided an inexpensive means of replicating the visual effects of silver and gold dishware, while also incorporating legible representations of narratives. In the second category, Medici patrons sought to emulate Chinese porcelain and Iznik pottery through the commissioning and display of maiolica “alla porcellana” and soft-paste porcelain in order to demonstrate understanding of refined materials and comprehensive collecting practices. The final category of Bernard Palissy’s rustic ware, decorated with a variety of species including lizards and snakes, suited contemporary enthusiasm for the study of the natural world, as well as the creation and use of grottoes as dining spaces. This paper focuses on the messages of wealth and knowledge that these ceramics conveyed to diners.

Author

• Lisa Boutin Vitela, Cerritos College