POLYCHROME MAJOLICA CYLINDER, WORKSHOP OF MASTRO DOMENICO, VENICE, THIRD QUARTER OF THE 16TH CENTURY decorated with female busts in reserve on a background of flowers and fruit, cartouche with inscription of the contents supported by two cupids; wear, defects and minor losses to the enamel, a few losses of material and a felure at the base H. cm 36.5, diam. cm 28 A VENICE MAIOLICA VASE, THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY; WORN, DEFECTS AND MINOR GLAZE LOSSES, FEW MATERIAL LOSSES AND A FELURE Portraits within the reserves are one of the most frequently employed stylistic features in Venetian maiolica, particularly by Domenico da Venezia and his workshop, which received numerous commissions for extensive apothecary sets. Compare our specimen with two also attributed to the Venetian master and housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: one is decorated with the head of a grotesque figure on a scroll, and both bear (as in ours illustrated here) the inscribed labels Mostarda F and fields characterised by similar motifs and colours, with the shoulders decorated with stylised flowers and leafy volutes on a dark blue background graffitoed with whorls (J. E. Poole, Italian Maiolica and Incised Slipware in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge 1995, pp. 415-417, no. 446).