Like a talented storyteller beginning his tale, a generous host invites visitors into the scene by setting the table with delicious food and decorated dinnerware. In Renaissance Italy, maiolica was the standard form of pottery used to serve these welcoming meals. The exhibition “Storytelling in Renaissance Maiolica,” on view at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia April 27 until Jan. 5, 2020, contains several of these tin-glazed earthenware plates from 16th-century Urbino and Venice.

The catalyst for the exhibition was two pieces of maiolica the museum recently purchased with funds provided by the Virginia Y. Trotter Decorative Arts Endowment and the William Underwood Eiland Endowment. These works were made in the workshop of Guido Durantino (also known as Guido Fontana; active 1520 – 1576) and his son Orazio in Urbino, Italy. Perri Lee Roberts, professor emeritus, University of Miami, and guest curator for the exhibition, helped locate them, as well as other works borrowed for the exhibition.