Renaissance ceramics. (Current and Coming).(exhibit Gods, Saints and Heroes: Ceramic Masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance)

During the Renaissance vibrant pigments were not only used to color prints in northern Europe. In Italy they were used to decorate ceramics. Many of these pigments were newly discovered and added greatly to the earlier palette. In Italian wares this is perhaps best borne out on large ceramic dishes and plates known as istoriato, or storytelling wares. Unlike colored prints, these are impervious to the effects of light, and therefore are as brilliant today as they were when they were created nearly five hundred years ago. These rare survivals confirm the fact that saturated colors were popular during this period and that ceramics were used as a vehicle to emulate the work of artists such as Raphael. These dishes, probably created more for display than actual use, were not only colorful adornments for the houses of affluent merchants and nobles, but also are important for the biblical or mythological narratives depicted on them. The scenes affirmed their owners' intellectual sophistication and knowledge of both the classical past and the ...