‘Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads’ at Gardiner Museum, Toronto 14 October 2021–9 January 2022

After a year-long delay as a result of the ongoing global pandemic, the much-anticipated exhibition ‘Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads’ finally opened at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Founded in 1984 by the philanthropists George and Helen Gardiner, the Gardiner Museum is Canada’s only museum that specializes in ceramic art. The major pieces in the permanent collection range from ancient American sculpture, Italian majolica earthenware, European court porcelain, a well-published collection of Japanese export art, and Chinese Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) period porcelain.

The exhibition continues the museum’s focus on ceramics from around the world. Even though the 110 objects on display encompass textiles, paintings, glassware, metalwork, and costumes, the show’s emphasis is still on earthenware and porcelain from Europe, the Islamic world, and China. Many of the ceramic objects showcased are from the Gardiner’s collection, but there are numerous items on loan from Canadian institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum and the Aga Khan Museum and international collections like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In this exhibition, the curator Karine Tsoumis presents Venice as a modern metropolis. Its prime coastal location in northeastern Italy during the 1500s enabled this city of more than 100 interconnected islands to be a major destination for trade, commerce, and culture between the Middle East and the rest of Europe. With a population growing to more than 100,000 people, Venice was a unique cosmopolitan centre of local and foreign ethnicities and numerous religions.  Although the majority of the objects featured in this exhibition are ceramics, these works are interspersed with other highlights, like a massive Mamluk carpet from about 1500 and a work by the Venetian painter Paolo Veronese (1528–88) depicting the subject of its title, ‘Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine’.

Walls inspired by Middle Eastern window frames are also a nice touch to make viewers feel like they are in a liminal space between East and West. The various sections of the exhibition are also organized efficiently so that visitors can easily learn more about the history of Venice, its trade with the Islamic world, the various studios and workshops that produced earthenware, and the opulent tastes of the nobility.

Fig. 1 Exhibition view of ‘Renaissance Venice: Life and Luxury at the Crossroads’
Photograph: Toni Hafkenscheid

Objects of majolica, a tin-glazed earthenware that was developed in Italy by the early 14th century, are here used present the exquisite tastes of Renaissance Venice. Often colourful, this earthenware was made into items for the noble households, including bowls, jars, and dishes. Majolica became a much-desired commodity in Italy and the rest of Europe. One of the majolica highlights is a blue-and-white charger (c. 1545–50) attributed to the workshop of the Venetian artisan Jacomo da Pesaro. The work displays a high level of craftsmanship in its detailed painted scene of the idyllic Italian countryside. The blue-and-white palette also shows the importance of the Venetian trade since cobalt was an expensive material imported from Iran. The colours too were influenced by Chinese porcelain, which were rare objects desired by the extremely wealthy.

Fig. 2 Charger with townscape
Venice; attributed to the workshop of Jacomo da Pesaro, c. 1545–50
Tin-glazed earthenware (majolica)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2017.129)
Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Another major theme in this exhibition is the Venetian trade with the Mamluk Sultanate, industrious traders based in Egypt and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean from the 13th century until 1517, when they were conquered by the Ottoman Empire. During the 15th and early 16th centuries, the Mamluks were Venice’s link to the Middle East, importing luxurious silks, spices, glass, and pottery into the city. An exquisite candlest ick from Syria or Egypt is the type of Islamic object that would have been brought to Venice through trade with the Mamluks. With a brass body inlaid with gold and silver, it is an elegant object. The body is inscribed with the title of a high-ranking official, and it would have been sought after by Venetian nobles for its fine workmanship and exotic nature.

Fig. 3 Candlestick
Syria or Egypt; Mamluk period (1250–1517), 1293–1340 or 1347–61
Engraved brass with gold and silver inlay
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (969.118.2)
With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum ©ROM

The exhibition also displays eight Chinese porcelains from the early Ming dynasty to show that similar works were historically recorded in Venice during the 16th century. These items weren’t directly traded with China but were rather tribute pieces that passed through the Mamluk trade routes. Chinese porcelains, like a blue-and-white lotus charger from the Yongle period (1403–24), had a very Islamic appearance and were highly desired by the Venetian elite. Such porcelain had durability, design, and glazing that the Europeans were not yet able to replicate.

Fig. 4 Dish with lotus scrolls
China, Jingdezhen; Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Yongle period (1403–24)
Porcelain, underglaze cobalt blue
Collection of Dr. Michael Yuen
Photograph: Toni Hafkenscheid, reproduced with permission of Dr. Michael Yuen

The exhibition’s hardcover catalogue, Maiolica in Renaissance Venice: Ceramics and Luxury at the Crossroads, expands on the themes of the show and delves deeper into the history of majolica (or, in Italian, maiolica). During these pandemic times, the exhibition is a refreshing sight for lovers of European, Islamic, and Chinese decorative arts. 

Anthony Wu is an Asian Art consultant, researcher, writer and certified appraiser.

 To read more of our online content, return to our Home page.