GLOBULAR JAR, VENICE, 16th CENTURY in majolica decorated in polychrome with copper green, cobalt blue antimony yellow, manganese brown in shades of violet brown and brownish brown, tin white; on the bottom a collection label with number printed in red 883; h. cm 22, mouth diam. cm 11.8, base diam. cm 11.5, M. Vitalique 22 cm, mouth diameter 11.8 cm, base diameter 11.5 cm, A GLOBULAR JAR, VENICE, 16TH CENTURY Comparative bibliography M. Vitali, Omaggio a Venezia. Le ceramiche della Fondazione Cini. I, Faenza 1998, no. 27; F. Saccardo in R. Ausenda (ed.), Musei e Gallerie di Milano. Museum of Applied Arts. Ceramics. Tomo primo, Milan 2000, pp 271-273 nn 290-291 The bowl has a globular body and a "thrown" rim, according to the typical forms of sixteenth-century Venetian vases. The surface is entirely decorated with sinuous lines of foliate volutes with large crested leaves, polypetal flowers, campanulas and fruits, and with small commas engraved in cross-hatching on the thick cobalt blue coloured glaze. On the shoulder there is a foliate garland illuminated with touches of tin, while the body has three large medallions between the decoration with a mixed-line cartouche frame, centred by three portraits skilfully outlined in blue monochrome with more or less marked shading: the three-quarter profile of a young girl with her hair up, the profile of a bearded old man, a young man who can be glimpsed from behind. This vase differs from the more classical production of bowls with portrait in medallion, not only for the type of the frame, but also and above all for the quality of the execution of the monochrome portraits. The classical dimensions, the variety in the portraits and the absence of the cartouche with the indication of the pharmaceutical preparation make one think of the intervention of the hand of a "masterful painter" for a prestigious work. Works with portraits in blue in the Façon de Venise style, typical of the first decades of the 16th century, are known, but generally on plates or open forms. The published works show portraits on a yellow background or small figurines of saints on a white background enhanced by yellow touches, of which we have examples in the Cini Collection in Venice and in the bowls of the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.