Marbeleized Pottery in Tuscany

Pottery with a surface decoration employing different colours of slip to imitate marble and other semi-precious stones was made in Tuscany from about 1570 to 1650. Marbleized pottery is in many ways a typical product of the Counterreformation It was certainly made in Pisa and recent discoveries have revealed that it was also produced in several other towns along the Arno river between Florence and the Tyrrhenian coast. This paper proposes to explore three main aspects of Tuscan marbleized pottery: why it was made, where it was made and how it was made.