A BOULBOUS JAR, VENICE, MASTRO DOMENICO AND COWORKERS, CIRCA 1570 BOULBOUS JAR, VENICE, MASTRO DOMENICO AND COWORKERS, CIRCA 1570 majolica, polychrome painted in blue, yellow, orange, copper green, tin white and manganese; h. cm 29,5, diam. of mouth cm 12, diam. of foot cm 13 Comparative literature M. Vitali, Homage to Venice. Le ceramiche della Fondazione Cini. I , Faenza 1998, p. 79 n. 24; F. Saccardo in R. Ausenda (ed.), Le ceramiche. Museo d'Arti Applicate, Milan 2000, p. 275 nn. 295-298 The pharmaceutical jar has a globular body with a low cylindrical neck ending in an everted rim cut into a splint and rests on a flat disc base. The decoration, which covers the entire surface, shows on one face a circular medallion framed by a motif of wide curled scrolls, containing a beautiful female portrait, contrasting with a similar medallion on the other face of the vase with the figure of St. Stephen praying. The remaining surface is covered with a dense decoration on blue graffito with leafy whorls, broad curving acanthus leaves and flower corollas. The quality of the paint and material, the dimensions and the comparison with similar examples lead us to the best production of the Venetian craftsmen of the third quarter of the 16th century active in the workshop of Mastro Domenico. It is, in fact, one of the workshop's most sought-after productions, such as the vases from the Arte Civica collection of Castello Sforzesco with saints in blue grisaille, Our work, however, differs from it both in the choice of juxtaposing an amatory portrait with the figure of the saint, and in the stylistic choices: the saint, realised in polychrome, displays characteristics that are often found in both albarellos and vases with an oval body, on which the style of the figurines contrasted with the flower and fruit decorations gave rise to the success of the Venetian workshop from its beginnings to the successful imitations disseminated throughout Sicily. The shape and style of the decoration and the female figure seem comparable to the figures on the albarello published by Carmen Ravanelli Guidotti in the catalogue produced for the exhibition dedicated to majolica at the Cini Foundation (Inv. 21325).