Earthenware Dish in the Cloisters, October 2010

Deep Dish

Date: 1430–1460

Geography: Made in Manises, Valencia, Spain

Culture: Spanish

Medium: Tin-glazed earthenware

Dimensions: Overall: 18 3/4 in. (47.6 cm)

Classification: Ceramics

Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1956

Accession Number: 56.171.152

Description: This dish (or brasero) comes from a lavish ensemble of tableware created for the delle Agli family of Florence. The family's arms, featuring a rampant wolf, appears at the center. (The purplish color is as close as the potters could get to the prescribed red.)

The arms are ringed by garlic, a playful reference to the consonance between the family name and the Italian word for garlic (aglio). The scrolling vine pattern of the border is recognizable as bryony.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/471805