Blue and White Dish with a Merchant Ship

Unknown

about 1510

Tin-glazed earthenware

J. Paul Getty Museum

A round, tin-glazed earthenware plate decorated with blue underglaze. The central motif is a sailing ship on wavy water, surrounded by a decorative border of floral scrolls and cartouches containing various objects and the word "MYSTICA". The delicate stylized flower and leaf decoration of this plate is called alla porcellana (like porcelain) because it imitates blue and white Chinese porcelain, which was much sought after in fifteenth and sixteenth-century Italy. Because Western potters were unable to create true porcelain until much later, they tried to simulate it with earthenware. The arabesque-like foliage may also have been inspired by Turkish Isnik pottery of the period. The rim of the plate is decorated with four musical trophies: a harp with sheets of music, a lute with a scroll inscribed MVSICA, a reed pipe and wind blower, and an urn and dulcimer. In the c