Plate with the Arms of the Pucci Family, 1532. Francesco Xanto Avelli (Italian, 1487-1544). Tin-glazed earthenware (maiolica); diameter: 3.2 x 19 cm (1 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.). Italian nobles of the 1500s often expressed their wealth, social status, and sophistication by ordering large sets of maiolica that sometimes carried their coats of arms or even likenesses, usually in profile as in portraits of the period. The Pucci family was a powerful noble household in Renaissance Florence who were at times quite close allies of the Medici, a prominent banking family.