Monday to Friday making pots. Selling your wares at the Saturday market. Sounds like the ideal life. So it was for southern Italian potters during the late 18th to early 19th century when this bottle in the form of a woman was made.
Each pottery making town or region added its own unique character to the broader style of southern Italian wares. Made for the local market, anthropomorphic wares such as this reflected the lives of the people they were made for.
Everything about this tin glazed maiolica bottle says Ariano Irpino, a town in the Campania region of Italy. From the opaque white glaze over a buff earthenware body, to the five colour palette of overglaze black, yellow, orange, blue and green, to the little dabs of yellow/orange on her cheeks.
A woman in traditional costume, holding a dead rabbit (presumably the evening meal). The lively brushwork of the overglaze colours brings the vibrancy of her costume to life offering us a glimpse of life in simpler times.
Height 24 cm.
Anthropomorphic bottles from, Collesano, Grottaglie and Sicilia or Calabria will be follow in the coming days.
