Wine Cistern

1553

Elaborately fashioned platters, vessels, and containers, often decorated with embellishments that indicated their owner’s status, were displayed on the banquet tables of Renaissance Italy. Cisterns such as this were filled with cold water and used to cool wine bottles at feasts. Decorated by the Italian ceramic painter Francesco Durantino, this work typifies the Renaissance interest in both Christian imagery and scenes from pagan antiquity.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Francesco Durantino Italian, active 1543-after 1553

Date

1553

Medium

Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica)

Dimensions

53.3 × 26.7 cm (21 × 10 1/2 in.)

Origin

Italy

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Mary Waller Langhorne Endowment