Storage Jar (Vaso a Palla) (c. 1560–80): Art, History and Details

Storage Jar (Vaso a Palla) (c. 1560–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Domenego da Venezia (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: Storage Jar (Vaso a Palla)
• Date: c. 1560–80
• Creator attribution: Domenego da Venezia (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Venice
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)
• Dimensions: Average: 25.4 cm (10 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1939.178

A detail from the museum

In contrast to a pharmacy jar, this Vaso a Palla (globular or round-shaped jar), likely served a more domestic function and may have held oil or preserved fruits and nuts.

Collection credit

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., for the Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "The Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection Gift of Leonard C Hanna." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 26, no. 6 (June 1939): 84-115.

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.