Global Luxury in Renaissance Venice, Hardcover

Global Luxury in Renaissance Venice offers an unprecedented exploration of Venetian maiolica pottery set in a vibrant context of hybridity and exchange. Introduced by migrant potters around 1500, the medium of maiolica offers a unique point of entry into Venice's material world as it was shaped by Mediterranean trade and local luxury production. This richly illustrated volume explores maiolica's multifaceted connection to objects ranging from Islamic metalwork to Venetian glass and examines the role of maiolica within the vast range of luxury objects made in Venice and imported into the city, highlighting the place of the medium at the nexus of cross-media and cross-cultural exchanges.

Thematic discussions investigate the circulation of artifacts and the migration of ornament, the lure of Chinese porcelain, and maiolica's position in the material culture of splendor that characterized elite interiors. The book also includes an essay on glass as a Venetian luxury good, written by Christopher Maxwell, curator at the Corning Museum of Glass. Global Luxury in Renaissance Venice also addresses works made in the thriving workshops of Jacomo da Pesaro and Domenego da Venezia and suggests a connection between the rise of villeggiatura (a rural holiday retreat) in the mid-sixteenth century and the ascent of Venice's maiolica industry. A work of deep scholarship that is also lavishly produced and full of images of luxurious maiolica, this will appeal to art historians and fans of Venice alike.

About author(s):Karine Tsoumis is curator of the historical collection at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, where she serves as the curator of the historical collection. The Gardiner Museum is one of the few museums in the world focused on ceramics. The Gardiner's exceptional collection holds more than 4,000 objects from the ancient Americas, Europe, Japan, and China, as well as contemporary works with an emphasis on leading Canadian artists.