Wishful Making: Wasted Resources in Tin-Glazed Earthenware Production in Sixteenth-Century Cracow

Michele Tenduzzi, a sixteenth-century Venetian ceramicist, was lured to Cracow by the prospect of making a small fortune while developing tin-glazed earthenware in the Kingdom of Poland. Ensuing litigation between the artisan and the patron documents this enterprise's failure. This paper argues for the artistic, social and ecological consequences of failed ventures in the field of earth-based technologies, which relied heavily on environmental conditions. Through a close analysis of archival sources and surviving artefacts, it becomes clear that the artisan tried to end the compulsive experimentations ordered by his patron, whose judgement became clouded by his continuous wishful thinking. Tenduzzi didn't need to make numerous attempts, wasting the materials and his own labour, because his experience-based knowledge of firing wood and tactile engagement with the locally sourced clay made him confident that the production of Italian-style ceramics was impossible given the local natural circumstances. Those were determined by the geological conditions, which affected clays and climate, which in turn favoured the growth of different, unsuitable kinds of wood. This specific case study showcases the need to investigate local artistic production, not as an activity driven uniquely by skill and know-how, but – importantly – as socially and ecologically implicated actions.