A Venetian or façon de Venise tazza or shallow wine glass, circa 1600


Of so-called Caravaggio type, with a very delicate saucer-shaped top, on a hollow swelling stem between collars, above a thin, slightly conical foot, 12.9cm high, 13.7cm diam at the top rim
|ProvenanceRobert Manners CollectionCaravaggio's painting of Bacchus painted c.1595-6, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, shows a tazza of related form filled with wine, confirming the intended function of shallow vessels of this type. Such glasses would have been made in Venice and in other parts of Europe alla façon de Venise, including in England where a group of related tazzas from Alnwick Castle have been suggested to be from the period of Verzelini.