Basin (Lebrillo)

Basin (Lebrillo)

late 1600s
Artist
unknown artist
Locale
Puebla, Mexico
Country
Mexico
Object
basin
Medium
Earthenware, lead/tin glaze, cobalt in-glaze paint
Accession Number
2001.314
Credit Line
Funds from 2001 Collectors' Choice

Unknown artist, Basin, late 1600s. Earthenware, lead/tin glaze, and cobalt in-glaze paint; 6 × 26 in. dia. Funds from 2001 Collectors' Choice, 2001.314.

Dimensions
height: 6 in, 15.2400 cm; diameter: 26 in, 66.0400 cm
Department
Mayer Center, Latin American Art
Collection
Latin American Art
This object is currently on view

Hand-built from mud and low-fired to harden, earthenware vessels were produced throughout the Americas for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. Earthenware covered with a hard, shiny glaze made from lead and tin had been invented in the Middle East. The technique (known as majolica), along with the potter’s wheel, was introduced to Spain by Muslims in the 900s.  In turn, Spanish ceramic artists introduced glazes and the potter’s wheel to the Americas in the 1500s.
     The colonial towns of Puebla (Mexico) and Lima (Peru) became centers of majolica production. They created distinctive styles that often incorporated a mixture of motifs taken from earlier Islamic, Spanish, and Indigenous models as well as from imported Chinese porcelains.
     This large majolica basin reveals the distinctive mixture of motifs typical of ceramics made in Mexico during the colonial era (1521–1821). The crowded, delightfully illogical use of space derives from earlier Islamic and ancient Mexican models. The dotted human and animal forms were introduced by Muslims to Spain. The blue-and-white color scheme and the divided panels around the rim are borrowed from Chinese ceramics like the plate seen here.  
-- Donna Pierce, 2015
 

 

Known Provenance
Purchased by the Denver Art Museum with funds from 2001 Collector's Choice. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.
Exhibition History
  • Cambios exhibit, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1992