maiolica

Tin-glazed earthenware produced in Italy since before 1250. In the Renaissance period the decoration was often similar to the work of the most important contemporary Italian painters of complex religious and secular scenes.

The name is thought to come from the medieval Italian word for Majorca, an island on the route for ships that brought Spanish lustered ceramics, called Hispano-Moresque ware, to Italy from Valencia in the 15th and 16th Centuries, or from the Spanish term obra de Malaga that means to describe something as “imported Malagan wares”. During the Renaissance, the term Maiolica referred solely to lusterware, including both Italian made and Spanish imports, but eventually the term came to be used when describing ceramics made only in Italy, lustered or not, that were earthenware covered with a tin glaze.