Montelupo, Italy
Around 1560–80
Tin-glazed earthenware
Diameter: 38.3 cm
Jugs like this were known as quartoni. They were probably displayed on a sideboard with matching wares of various sizes. Noble Florentine families commissioned these large and colourful jugs painted with their coats of arms framed by cornucopias, symbols of plenty. The jug’s background is painted in the ‘porcelain style’, recalling the fashion among the rich and powerful for collecting Chinese porcelain.