Molded Dish with an Allegory of Love (Front)

An unknown potter formed this fluted dish called a crespina,meaning rippled or wrinkled, on a form or mold to imitate the shape of contemporary metalwork.

The young man in the center of this decorative dish is bound to a tree. As he is bound to the tree, so he is bound by love. In keeping with this theme, a narrow, twisted rope encircles the central scene. This allegory of love as a bittersweet force that holds its victims captive was popular in sixteenth-century Italy.