Location

114 Late Northern Renaissance

Fun Fact

The green tree frog was one of the symbols of French King Henri II, indicating that this ewer may have either been made for the king or one of his courtiers.

Description

An example of one of the most extravagant wares of this kind, this ewer is decorated with applied masks and frogs as well as a variety of stamped and inlaid designs. The shape and patterns reflect the metalwork of the time—the final period of this artistic pottery.

Saint-Porchaire

A French factory certainly active before 1542 and the probable source of a highly individual type of lead-glazed earthenware. These pieces are decorative objects of finely grained off-white paste with intricate inlaid patterns of strapwork made by impressing the clay with metal punches and filling the cavities with clays of contrasting colors, red, yellow and brown; they are covered with a transparent lead glaze.

Provenance

Lionel de Rothschild.

Edmund de Rothschild, London. (Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., 1953).

Citations

Foote, Helen S. "Saint-Porchaire Pedestal Dish and Ewer." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 42, no. 2 (February 1955): 23-27.
Published as: Saint-Porchaire Ewer. Mentioned: pp. 23-7; reproduced: p. 25 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 102 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 102 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 119 archive.org

Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 50, fig. 52

Crepin-Leblond, Thierry. Une orfévrerie de terre: Bernard Palissy et la céramique de Saint-Porchaire. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997. Mentioned & reproduced: p. 19, fig. 1 library.clevelandart.org

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned & reproduced: pp.34-5, no. 30; listed p. 117 library.clevelandart.org

Bidwell, Frederick E., and Leslie Cade. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with New York, NY: Scala Arts Publishers, 2014. Mentioned& reproduced: p. 131 library.clevelandart.org

Cleland, Elizabeth A. H. and Marjorie E. Wieseman. Renaissance Splendor: Catherine De' Medici's Valois Tapestries. Cleveland, OH; New Haven, CT: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 27, fig. 21 library.clevelandart.org

Gruber, Alain. "Entrelacs." In L'Art décoratif en Europe. Bruno Pons and Alain Gruber, 21-112. Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod,, 1992. Reproduced: p. 100

Darras, Gaelle. "Une aiguière de Saint-Porchaire," L'Objet d'Art, no. 426 (July-August 2007). Mentioned & reproduced: p. 22, fig. 1 library.clevelandart.org

Exhibition history

No legacy exhibitions.

Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ Medici’s Valois Tapestries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 18, 2018-January 21, 2019).