Spice rack. Italy, 17th century

Spice rack; Italy, Urbino 17th century.
Enamelled ceramic.
Measurements: 9.5 x 18 x 12 cm.
Baroque style spice rack made in ceramic mould and decorated with enamels. It presents a mixtilinear plant. It is decorated with baroque floral motifs in yellow-black and secondary motifs in cobalt blue. Urbino and Casteldurante were among the main centres of historical majolica production, but there were also numerous factories throughout the country, the most important of which were Faenza, Pesaro, Castelli, Deruta and Caffagiolo. Among the decorative motifs produced throughout the 16th century until the first decades of the 17th century, the grotesques became, thanks to the frescoes of Raphael's Loggia del Vaticano, "Raphaelesque" to surround the historiated medallions of the dozens of jugs, fountains, dishes often decorated with small sculptures of fantastic animals and caryatids of various shapes.