Two monumental maiolica amphorae from the Papi workshop: new insights and contexts

Recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, two large ‘istoriato’ maiolica vases featuring scenes from Torquato Tasso’s poem ‘Gerusalemme Liberata’ illustrate the continued presence of pottery workshops in seventeenth-century Urbania. Two previously unpublished documents help to contextualise their maker, Pietro Papi, as well the Papi family workshop, within the social and economic dynamics of central Italian ceramic production.