The tin-enameled earthenware called maiolica was among the major accomplishments of decorative arts in Renaissance Italy, borrowing visual themes from Greek and Roman antiquity but using brighter colors and ornamentation from cultures around the Mediterranean. The history of maiolica is told here through 140 exemplary pieces at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, including many never before published. Each piece is described with production details and its social context—including an eight-figure group of the Lamentation, the most ambitious piece of sculpture produced in a Renaissance maiolica workshop—as well as pharmacy jars, bella donna plates, jugs, vases, and bowls.