Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collections

Catherine Hess

In 1984 the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired an exceptional collection of Italian Renaissance maiolica, or tin-glazed earthenware. These often brilliantly colored objects range from an early Florentine jar with oak leaf decoration to a much later Mannerist dish with grotesque ornament. Italian Ceramics catalogues this fine collection of forty-five objects spanning four hundred years, including a pair of eighteenth-century candlesticks representing mythological scenes, a tabletop with hunting scenes, and, from the 1790s, the beautifully modeled and painted Saint Joseph with the Christ Child.

The entries in this book amplify and update the earlier volume Italian Maiolica, published in 1988. Containing the most recent scientific, historical, and iconographic information about the Museum's holdings, the volume offers a wealth of new information about the Getty Museum's superb collection of Italian ceramic art. A historical introduction and individual commentaries are provided by Catherine Hess, the former associate curator in the Department of Sculpture at the J. Paul Getty Museum.