Armor Platter Bardi family - Castelfiorentino 16th century

This beautiful majolica dish was made in the sixteenth century In Tuscany, especially in the municipality of Castelfiorentino.
Majolica is an earthenware production technique with a shiny glaze and metallic reflections, originating from "Moorish" Spain. It was very successful in Italy between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries.

This dish with basin presents a vegetal decoration "a sgraffito", realized by hatching or scraping of the coating covering the bottom in shades of white and ochre.
In its center is a coat of arms with stylized decorations showing a castle surmounted by a tower, which belongs to the Florentine family of the Bardi family, Counts of Vernio.
The Florentine Bardi family was one of the most important families in Florence. Simone de' Mardi married Beatrice Portinari, the famous Beatrice who inspired the poet Dante Alighieri to write the Divine Commedia.
The Bardi family was one of the most important banker families in Europe in the second half of the 13th and first half of the 14th century. Until they suffered a serious financial setback when King Edward III of England, in 1345, failed to repay the loan of 900,000 florins (obtained to finance the war against France). This had wide financial repercussions in Italy and Europe, given the expansion of the Florentine banking network.
Nevertheless, the Bardi family remained very influential and played a decisive role in promoting the rise of the Medici to the pre-eminence of Florence, with whom they were bound by family ties since Contessina de' Bardi married Cosimo de' Medici, the head of the family and mastermind of the conquest of power by the Medici, and the grandfather of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent.

The Alexande Piatti Gallery especially thanks Dr. Luca Fusi for the attribution of the coat of arms and the sharing of all this wonderful information.