Dish with a Lion (c. 1430–50): Art, History and Details

Dish with a Lion (c. 1430–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This dish is representative of the rustic type of maiolica produced in Italy before 1450. The design is much inspired by contemporary Spanish earthenware. The surface of the dish is painted in a cobalt blue impasto technique known as zaffera a rilevo. Lions frequently adorn wares decorated in this technique and are particularly appropriate as a Florentine motif-they probably refer to that city's lion emblem.

Object facts

• Title: Dish with a Lion
• Date: c. 1430–50
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 28.6 cm (11 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Renaissance
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1966.19

Collection credit

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.