Saltcellar (c. 1570–90): Art, History and Details

Saltcellar (c. 1570–90) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is the Patanazzi Family (Italian).

The work and its context

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

During the Italian Renaissance of the 1400s and 1500s, nobles and merchants eager to express their wealth and sophistication ordered ceramics for dining, display, and storage. Known as maiolica, because it resembled the brightly colored ceramics from the Mediterranean island of Majorca, these ceramic vessels were covered with a tin glaze that provided an opaque white surface on which colorful decoration could be painted.

Object facts

• Title: Saltcellar
• Date: c. 1570–90
• Creator attribution: the Patanazzi Family (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Urbino, 16th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Overall: 20.3 x 21 x 12.8 cm (8 x 8 1/4 x 5 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1945.126.1

A detail from the museum

During the Renaissance, salt was an expensive commodity and was used to both season and preserve food.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip R. Mather

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foote, Helen S. “Gifts to the Majolica Collection.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 33, no. 4 (April 1946): 36–38.

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.