Cistern 1540 - 1550

This is a maiolica Cistern, made around 1565 by Orazio Fontana in Urbino, Italy. The cistern’s bucolic landscape creates meaning through a Renaissance fascination with the natural world. The painting depicts wooded areas, bodies of water, and rocky mountain-tops – all of which are coded with cultural and historical associations. In sixteenth-century Italy, the Medici family were important patrons of the arts, known to commission pieces that celebrated nature. The Medici family's power shaped artistic production, as did the influence of the Catholic church. But, while this cistern seems to offer praise of God’s creations, the Italian renaissance was also a time of tremendous social change when these institutions were heavily critiqued. Looking closely at the imagery, the historian of art can better understand the Cistern in its social and institutional contexts. We can research pieces commissioned by the Medici family and research how they used their pieces as a kind of propaganda.