This project focused on the visuality of sixteenth-century pottery, particularly istoriato-ware, and examined evidence of the technological development and subsequent consistency through which its demand was achieved and secured. What things looked like was clearly important, and while it was the narratives depicted and the use of a culturally specific palette that were crucial to the success and status of pottery as a consumer good, it was the dissemination and the ubiquity of the relevant technology that enabled the makers of pottery to respond to the demands of society and fashion, and as soon as possible.
Central to this research was the continuation and further development of Steve Wharton's understanding of the interdisciplinarity of Piccolpasso’s engagement with his cultural environment. This work principally consolidated and resolved a number of strands of research, exploring the social, political, and aesthetic contexts within which Italian Renaissance pottery was produced and, perhaps more importantly, examined how such work was thought about at that time.
Manuscript page from Piccolpasso's Three Books of the Art of the Potter (120v).
Project
(2012-2014)
Cipriano Piccolpasso's Art of the Potter
- Steve Wharton