Istoriato

イストリアート / c. 1500– / Style / Ceramic Styles

A way of painting maiolica in which the whole face of a dish becomes one picture, carrying a historical, mythological, Biblical or allegorical scene in colour all the way to the rim. It first appears around 1500 and is associated with Urbino. The vessel stops being a decorated object and turns into a support for painting.

Istoriato — Urbino workshop, footed dish with Abraham and Isaac, 16th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 — Urbino workshop, footed dish with Abraham and Isaac, 16th century — Wikimedia Commons / CC0 · CC0

Istoriato — Dish with Echo, Amor and Narcissus, 1535 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Francesco Xanto Avelli — Dish with Echo, Amor and Narcissus, 1535 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Francesco Xanto Avelli

Istoriato — Leonardo Bettisi, two-handled vase, 16th century, Faenza — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza — Leonardo Bettisi, two-handled vase, 16th century, Faenza — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza

At a glance

Visual cues

One continuous scene from well to rim, with no decorative band cutting it off
Polychrome painting in yellow, blue, green and brown over a white tin glaze
Figures set inside a receding landscape or architecture, the composition borrowed straight from painting
The scene carrying on across the curved rim, so the image distorts with the vessel's form

Best used for

Laying out a plate or tile series where the painting runs to the rim instead of stopping at a border
Fitting one narrative moment into a circular field, on a dish or on any other round format

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Dictionary entry

Type: Keep lettering out of the picture. If a scene needs naming, move the text off the field and write it small in a fine cursive hand.
Composition: Treat the well of the dish as a single picture plane and let the scene cross the rim rather than ending at a border. Group figures in the middle ground and open the upper field to sky and architecture.
Material: Paint directly in coloured pigments onto a raw white tin glaze, then fire so the colour sinks into the glaze. Nothing can be repainted, so every stroke is laid once.
Caution: Ringing the scene with a decorative border undoes the style, because it depends on the picture claiming the entire surface.
Further study: how the packing of the scene and the ground left empty differ between Urbino work and work from other centres / how much of the white of the tin glaze is left as ground / how the lines of figures and architecture distort on the curve of the rim

Related entries

Delftware (デルフト焼)Same Ceramic Styles lineage.Compare Istoriato and Delftware
Azulejo (アズレージョ)Shared effects: Luxury.Compare Istoriato and Azulejo

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