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Dish with a Lion
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this 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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDish with a Lion, c. 1430–50. Italy, Florence. Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica); diameter: 28.6 cm (11 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund, 1966.19
