Kensington. Perhaps isolated and lying dormant in remote localities for centuries, its use may have been learned by the Arabs, for its next appearance is upon fragments of tiling apparently of their manufacture or fashioned under their influence. How the knowledge of this enamel travelled, when and where it was first used, and to what extent applied, is still doubtful. We meet with an occasional fragment generally upon mural decoration of uncertain date on various Arab sites, till at length itbecomes palpably appreciable in the Moorish potteries of Spain and of the Balearic islands. The baron J. Ch. Davillier, in his excellent work on pottery, states that he has not been able to discover any piece which could reasonably be ascribed to a date anterior to the fourteenth century, some two hundred years after the expulsion of the Saracens from Spain. In Valencia, however, anterior to its conquest by Jayme I. of Arragon in 1239, potteries had been long established, and were of such importance that that monarch felt himself bound to protect the Moorish potters of Xativa (San Filippo) by a special edict.
We must bear in mind that there were two periods of Mahommedan sway in Spain, the first on the expulsion of the Gothic monarchy by the Arabs and the establishment of the Caliphate at Cordova, in the eighth century. Of the ceramic productions of this early period we have no accurate knowledge, but we should expect to find them of similar character to the siliceous glazed wares prevalent in the east. The second period is after an interval of five centuries, in 1235, when the Moors founded the kingdom of Granada, having driven out the Arabs. Then first appear the wares usually known as Hispano-moresque, like the fine vase (engraved) no. 8968, at South Kensington; for we find the tiles of the Alhambra dating about 1300, the Alhambra vase about 1320, and continuous abundant examples of tin glazed wares of Moorish origin, until the period of the conquest of the country by Ferdinand and Isabella; after which the pottery becomes more purely Spanish and speedily declines.
Mr. Marryat remarks, in reference to the second or Moorish period, that the art of the new invaders had the same origin as the old, but as we have no specimens known to have been of the earlier or Arabian period we cannot accept this verdict as conclusive. Moreover, some confusion has arisen in classing together the glass glazed or siliceous pottery, with or without metallic lustre, and the Moresque wares produced in Spain, which are sodistinctly characteristic as being enamelled with the oxide of tin.
We particularly refer to those somewhat rare examples of early siliceous pottery, like the deep Rhodian plate next engraved, someenriched with metallic lustre, others without, the designs upon all of which are eminently Arabian or Saracenic, unreadable mock Arabic inscriptions occurring (as in the textile fabrics of the same period) among the ornaments; as in the thirteenth century vase in the woodcut, p.17. Such are the tiles of early date from various
places in Persia and Arabia. Similar wares, of which there are specimens at South Kensington, are supposed to have been made by oriental potters in Sicily but it is difficult to say at what time. That island was conquered by the Saracens in 827. Again, there is another variety of pottery of Moresque character and ornamentation with vermicular pattern in copper lustre on a seemingly stanniferous glaze, which is ascribed to Moorish potterswho went to Sicily and established works at Calata Girone in the fourteenth century.
It is not improbable that the existence in Spain of tin ores in considerable abundance may have accidentally led to the discovery or to the adoption of the stanniferous enamel, obtained by an admixture of the oxide of that metal with glass and oxide of lead. We have no positive proof of its use on pottery at an earlier date in any other country, since the period of the Babylonian bricks.May there not be some truth in the story of the Majorcan dishes built into the Pisan towers, and that the single specimen of “Persian” ware found by the writer on the church of Sta. Cecilia in that city, which in all probability was placed there early in the twelfth century, may be one of the dishes brought home by the Pisans, at a time anterior to the use of the tin enamel in Majorca?
There is generally a foundation for fabulous stories, and it is not unlikely that some few of those trophies were so applied; the more so as the taste for such architectural decoration prevailed at that period. At the same time there can be no doubt that many of the bacini adorning churches in various parts of Italy, including Pisa, were of native Italian manufacture, as would seem probable from their compositions and designs. Engravings of these, and of the fragment of oriental ware above alluded to, are published in the Archæologia, vol. xlii. We are indebted to the council of the Society of antiquaries for permission (see next page) to use the latter block.
The earliest traces of the use of stanniferous enamel glaze in Europe, known to us, is always in connection with a decoration, produced by the reduction of certain metallic salts in the reverberatory furnace, leaving a thin film upon the surface, which gives that beautiful and rich effect known asreflet métallique,nacré,cangiante,rubino,reverberato, &c., and in England as lustred ware. In Italy the use of a metallic lustre was apparently known and practised previous to the introduction of the tin enamel, for we have abundant examples of early “mezza-maiolica” from the potteries of Pesaro or Gubbio, glazed only with the oxide of lead and glass, and which are brilliantly lustred with the metallic colours. None of these can, however, be referred to an earlier date than the latter half of the fifteenth century.
Of whom, then, did the Italian potters learn this art? We have no answer to the question in any historical record, and we are forced to infer that the name by which this lustred ware was known at the time and in the country of its production, reflected that of
the place from which it was derived. Accordingly we find that the coarser lead glazed lustred ware was known as “mezza-maiolica,” while that more nearly resembling its original, by the use of the tin enamel, was known as “maiolica.” That the Moorish potters of Majorca conveyed this knowledge, and that the Italians named their ware after that of the island, would seem a reasonable conclusion. M. Jacquemart, however, thinks it equally probable that although the Majorcan wares were well known in Italy, this art may really have been communicated by Persian potters, or their pupils, coming to the eastern ports of Italy; and that the style of decoration on the early Italian lustred wares is more Persian than Moresque. This would also in some measure explain why the lustrous colours were used at some potteries anterior to the adoption of the stanniferous enamel. The woodcut represents a bowl at South Kensington, no. 503, possibly of this manufacture, and of great rarity. In date it is somewhat late; about 1490.
The general term “Maiolica,” also spelt “Majolica,” has long been and is still erroneously applied to all varieties of glazed earthenware of Italian origin. We have seen that it was not so originally but that the term was restricted to the lustred wares, which resemble in that respect those of the island from which they had long been imported into Italy. It is a curious fact, proving their estimation in that country, that nearly all the specimens of Hispano-moresque pottery which adorn our cabinets and enrich our museums have been procured in Italy; comparatively few pieces having been found in Spain.
Scaliger states in reference to the Italian pottery as comparable with the porcelain of China, that the former derived its name from Majorca, of which the wares are most excellent. Fabio Ferrari also, in his work upon the origin of the Italian language, states his belief “that the use of majolica, as well as the name, came from Majorca, which the ancient Tuscan writers called Maiolica.” Thus Dante writes:—“Tra l’isola di Cipri e Maiolica;” showing thethen mode of spelling the name of the island, and it would seem but natural to distinguish an imitation of its produce as “à la Maiolica.”
The “mezza-maiolica” was the coarser ware, formed of potter’s earth, covered with a white “slip” upon which the subject was painted; then glazed with the common “marza-cotto” or lead glaze, over which the lustre pigments were applied. The “maiolica,” on the other hand, was the tin enamelled ware similarly lustred. As before stated, these terms were originally used with reference only to the lustred wares, but towards the middle of the sixteenth century they seem to have been generally applied to the glazed earthenware of Italy. We think with M. Jacquemart, M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, and others, that the wordmaiolicashould be again restricted to the lustred wares, although in Italy and elsewhere it is habitually used to designate all the numerous varieties of glazed earthenware, with the exception of the more common “terraglia” and in distinction from porcelain.
The Germans ascribe the discovery of the tin enamel glazing to a potter of Schelestadt, in Alsace, whose name is unknown but who died in the year 1283; and in the convent of St. Paul at Leipzic is a frieze of large glazed tiles, with heads in relief, the date of which is stated to be 1207. The potters’ art is said to have developed itself in that country at an earlier period than in Italy; rilievo architectural decorations, monuments with figures in high relief, and other works of great artistic merit having been executed in 1230 at Breslau, where there is a monument to Henry IV. of Silesia who died in 1290, an important work in this material. Later, at Nuremberg, the elder Veit Hirschvögel was born in 1441, and by him the use of the tin glaze was known. Specimens ascribed to his hand and dating from 1470 are preserved in museums. At Strehla a pulpit of glazed terra-cotta is of the date 1565, and at Saltzburg is the wonderful chimney-piece of the fifteenth century, still in its original position in the Schloss.At that time, also, Hans Kraut, of Villengen in Swabia, produced good works, but it is probable that many of these larger examples are covered with an admirably manipulated green or brown glaze which is produced without the admixture of tin.
In Italy history has always awarded the honour of its discovery to Luca della Robbia, whose first great work was executed in 1438; and however recent observation may lead to the assumption that its use was known in the Italian potteries before his time, there can be no doubt that his was not merely an application of a well-known process to a new purpose, but that he really did invent an enamel of peculiar whiteness and excellence, better adapted to his purpose and of somewhat different composition from that in use at any of the potteries of his time.
Wehave already seen that in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries native wares were produced in various places, some of which still exist in the towers and façades of churches, and of a palace at Bologna. These are lead glazed, rudely painted or with single colours, and in some instances “sgraffiato” proving that the use of a white “slip,” or “engobe” was known in Italy at that period, as affirmed by Passeri, who further asserts that in 1300 the art assumed a more decorative character, under the then lords of Pesaro, the Malatestas. Having thus attained an even opaque white surface the development of its artistic decoration steadily advanced. The colours used were yellow, green, blue, and black, to which we may add a dull brownish red, noticed on some of the Pisan “bacini.” Passeri states that the reflection of the sun’s rays from the concave surfaces of these “bacini” at Pesaro was most brilliant, and hence it has been wrongly inferred that they were enriched with metallic lustre. We believe that this effect may arise from iridescence on the surface of the soft lead glaze, easily decomposed by the action of the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of the sea.
Pieces exist, of considerable merit, which may be ascribed to an earlier period than that on which we find the earliest date. A votive plaque preserved in the museum of the hôtel Cluny, at Paris, has the sacred monogram surrounded by the legendNicolaus · de · Ragnolis · ad · honorem · dei · et · Sancti · Michaelis · fecit · fieri · ano ·1475. We have always considered this plaque as of Faenza, but it would seem that MM. Jacquemartand Darcel are disposed to ascribe it to Caffaggiolo. The next example, two years later in sequence of date, is in the possession of Mr. Cook; it represents the Virgin seated on a throne in an architectural framing, and holding the Child; it has all the characteristics of a Tuscan origin and the glaze appears to be stanniferous. We next have the Faenza plate in the Correr museum at Venice, dated 1482, followed by the plaque ascribed to Forlì, 1489, and one of Faenza, 1491. Other pieces, dated 1486 and 1487, are in other collections. But we have no record or dated example of Italian pottery, coated with the stanniferous enamel, previous to the first important production by Luca della Robbia in 1438.
M. Jacquemart is of opinion that the use of the tin enamel was known on pottery in Italy previous to its application to sculpture by that artist, and in this opinion Mr. Robinson agrees; yet it is remarkable that no record of such knowledge has descended to us. No enamelled product of the early fabriques of Faenza or Caffaggiolo bears an earlier date, nor of that of Pesaro where decoration by means of the lustre pigments is believed to have preceded their application on enamelled wares; whereas the use of the tin enamel by Luca on flat painted surfaces is proved by thetondoon the church of Or San Michele, the lunette over a door at the Opera del Duomo, and the tiles on the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, now in the church of S. Francesco de Paolo below Bellosguardo, as Florentine evidences; and the twelve circular discs, on which are painted allegorical figures of the twelve months, are also to be referred to at South Kensington.
Mr. J. C. Robinson, in his catalogue of Italian sculpture, has given a notice of the life and works of Luca della Robbia and his family, and a description of the specimens ascribed to them and possessed by the museum at South Kensington; the majority of these rank as works of sculpture, but among the rest are thetondi, here mentioned, a wood-cut from one of which we introduce. Theyare, in fact, circular plaques of enamelled pottery painted on the plain surface with allegorical representations of the months, in all probability by the hand of Luca della Robbia himself. We quote Mr. Robinson’s description of them from page 59 of that catalogue:—
“Nos. 7632-7643. Luca della Robbia. A series of twelve circular medallions, in enamelled terra-cotta, painted inchiar’oscuro, with impersonations of the twelve months. Diameter of each, 1 foot 10½ inches. Vasari tells us that ‘Luca sought to invent a method of painting figures and historical representations on flat surfaces of terra-cotta, which, being executed in vitrified enamels, would secure them an endless duration; of this he made anexperiment on a medallion, which is above the tabernacle of the four saints on the exterior of Or San Michele, on the plane surface of which he delineated the instruments and emblems of the builder’s arts, accompanied with beautiful ornaments. For the bishop of Fiesole, in the church of San Brancazio, he also made a marble tomb on which are the recumbent effigy of the bishop and three other half-length figures besides, and in the pilasters of that work hepainted, on the flat, certain festoons and clusters of fruit and foliage so skilfully and naturally, that, were they evenpainted in oil on panel, they could not be more beautifully or forcibly rendered.’ We have here a record of the fact that Luca, simultaneously with his enamelled terra-cotta sculptures, also practisedpaintingin the same vehicle on the flat, or, in other words, the art of majolica painting. The monumental works before mentioned are now extant to attest the truth of this account.
“From a careful and repeated study of the above-named works on the spot, and likewise from the internal evidence of the technical qualities of the vehicle, terra-cotta, enamel pigments, &c., the writer has now to add to the list of Luca’s productions, in this especially interesting branch, the present series of medallions, doubtless united originally in a grand decorative work. Each roundel is a massive disc of terra-cotta, of a single piece, evidently prepared to be built into a wall (or vaulted ceiling) of some edifice. Round the margin of each is a decorated moulding, in relief, of a characteristic Della Robbia type. The surface within the narrow border is flat or plane, and the designs are painted in two or three grisaille tints on a blue ground, of the usual quiet sober tint affected in all the backgrounds and plane surfaces of the relievo subjects. These consist of single figures ofcontadinior husbandmen, impersonating the agricultural operations of the Florentine country, characteristic of each month of the year; and although invested with a certain artistic charm of expression, the various figures, each of which exhibits a different individual character, may be taken as life portraits of the sturdy Tuscan peasants ofthe day. A band orfasciaforming an inner border round each subject, is ingeniously and fancifully divided into two unequal halves, one being of a lighter tint than the general ground of the composition, and the other half darker, thus indicating the night and the day; the mean duration of each for every month, being accurately computed, set off on the band accordingly, and noted in written characters on the upper or daylight part, whilst the name of the month is written in large capital letters at the bottom in white, on the dark ground of the nocturnal portion. The sun pouring down a cone of yellow rays, accompanied by the sign of the zodiac proper to each month, is also seen on the left of the upper part of each margin, and the moon on the lower half opposite to him.” The author gives further proof that these medallions are the work of Luca della Robbia, believing the fact to be as certain as anything not absolutely authenticated can be.
Luca della Robbia was born about the year 1400, and his name must ever be associated with the discovery or adaptation on a large scale, and improvement in composition, of stanniferous enamel. That the nature of this enamel is different from what was used upon other pottery of the time may be seen by a comparison of the two surfaces. The greater degree of opacity and solidity in the former is a marked variation from that in general use; so with the surface of his painted tiles. Perhaps the earlier productions of the Caffaggiolo furnaces approach the nearest to it. There is no piece, seemingly, of the production of a Florentine or Tuscan pottery with a date before 1477, and this example would appear to be tin-glazed. With that exception, the first pieces surfaced with the stanniferous enamel are ascribed to the Caffaggiolo pottery and are dated 1507 and 1509, some seventy years subsequent to its first recorded use by Luca della Robbia; and we have no specimens which can with any probability be ascribed to a period within a quarter of a century of its habitual application by him. We cannot, therefore, find the slightest evidence to disprove the assertion of Vasari and others that Luca was the discoverer, for Italy, of this important improvement in the glazing of earthenware vessels. It is not, however, unreasonable to suppose that its composition may have been communicated to him by one of the Moorish potters from Spain, and that, acting upon this communication, he made a series of experiments resulting in the perfection to which he attained, and which result was guarded as a family secret by two succeeding generations.
A modification of this composition, perhaps also learnt from Hispano-moorish potters, became gradually known and adopted at various fabriques, spreading throughout the potteries of Italy, France, &c. We are inclined to M. Jacquemart’s opinion that it first came into use at Caffaggiolo, the fabrique established under the influence of the Medici family, but cannot consent to his suggestion that Luca learnt there the composition of the enamel. We agree with Mr. Robinson in giving the precedence, or at any rate an equality in point of age, to Faenza, and in ascribing to that place certain figures and groups in alto-rilievo, bearing inscriptions in Gothic letters, the modelling and design of which are more characteristic of the north of the Apennines than of the Tuscan valley.
Andrea della Robbia, to whom his uncle’s mantle descended, also painted occasionally on plane surfaces, as may be seen on tiles which cover the flat surface of a “lavabo” in the sacristy of the church of Sta. Maria Novella, in Florence. We would merely further note the fact that in 1520 the art was in decadence under the hand of Giovanni the son of Andrea, Luca’s nephew, and that during the first quarter of that century various imitators produced inferior works in the same style, copying the models of the Della Robbia and the works of some other sculptors. By Giovanni’s brother Girolamo it was introduced into France, where the château de Madrid was decorated by him under the patronage of Francis the first.
In Italy, Agostino di Antonio di Duccio, said to be a pupil ofLuca, worked at Perugia in 1459-61, where he executed enamelled bas-reliefs on the façade of the church of S. Bernardino, and in S. Domenico. Pier Paolo di Agapito da Sassoferrato is said to have erected an altar in this manner in the church of the Cappucini in Arceria, in the diocese of Sinigaglia, in the year 1513. He was also a painter. An able modeller as well as artist potter Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, of Gubbio, also appears to have executed works in the manner of the Della Robbia. The practice of enamelling large works modelled in terra-cotta would seem to have gone out of repute before the end of the first half of the sixteenth century; not perhaps so much from the secret of the glaze being known only, as we are told, to the descendants of the Della Robbia family, as from the want of demand for works in that material.
From the increased use of decorative tiles and the encouragement afforded to the production of artistic pottery, furnaces and boteghe had been established in various parts of northern and central Italy, particularly in Romagna, in Tuscany, and in the lordship of Urbino, where the manufacture was patronized at an early time by the ruling family, as also by the Sforza at Pesaro. Here the first use of the metallic lustre would appear to have been developed; but we have even less historical evidence of the date of its earliest introduction than in the case of the tin enamel. Before that great improvement was adopted by any of the potteries in Italy, the pearly, the golden, and the ruby lustre colours were produced at Pesaro, and perhaps at Gubbio where it subsequently attained its greatest perfection. Pesaro being a coast town of the Adriatic, and one where furnaces had long existed, would form a ready asylum for oriental workmen fleeing from persecution in their own country. It is reasonable to suppose that from them the use of these metallic pigments was acquired, and accordingly we find early pieces presumably of this fabrique, the decorative “motif” on which is eastern to a marked degree. Painted wares had been produced anterior to the use of the metallic pigments,and among them specimens are occasionally found betraying Persian influence in their design.
The outlines on the “mezza maiolica” of this period were traced in manganese black or zaffre blue, with which last the shadings are also indicated; the flesh is left white. A certain rigidity but truthfulness is observable in the design, crude and wanting in relief, but precise and free from timidity. A moresque border frequently surrounds a coat-of-arms, portrait busts in profile of contemporary princes, or that of a saint or heathen goddess; or the sacred monogram; or, again (betrothal gifts) a heart with joined hands, as in the woodcut; or portraits of ladies with a ribbon or banderole, on which the name is inscribed with a complimentary adjective as “bella,” “diva,” and the like; such are the principal subjects of these earlybacili.
The admirable “madreperla” lustre of these pieces, changingin colour and effect with every angle at which the light is reflected from their brilliant surface, is the leading characteristic and special beauty of this class of wares, which must have been in great request and produced in considerable quantity. Pesaro and Diruta lay claim to their production, and each fabrique has its champions.
We are inclined to ascribe the earlier and more important productions to Pesaro, and are disposed to consider the Diruta fabrique as a subsequent and less important source of supply in respect to the quality of the wares. Thesebaciliare nearly all of the same size and form; large heavy dishes of flesh-coloured clay with deep sunk centres and a projecting circular “giretto” behind, forming a foot or base; this is invariably pierced with two lateral holes,for the purpose of introducing a cord by which to suspend them to the wall, thus proving that they were looked upon more as decorative pieces (piatti di pompa) than for general use upon the table; the back is covered by a coarse yellow glaze, the front having a surface whitened by slip and painted as above-mentioned. The rim is sometimes ornamented in compartments (a quartiere), or with chequered, “chevroné” or imbricated patterns, or conventional flowers. Engraved (p.31) is a fine plateau of early date: no. 4078 at South Kensington.
The larger pieces of the period made at various places have a certain general resemblance in the clumsy fashion, the dry archaic style of drawing executed in blue outline, and in the diaper patterns of the border. Glazed wares of polychrome and subject decoration were no doubt produced before the introduction of the lustre colours and, judging from examples which have come down to us, the forms seem to have been partially derived from Persian, Hispano-moresque, and other oriental originals; deep dishes with angular sides and narrow rims; others with a wide border or side sloping at a gradual angle from the small circular centre. The gothic element is, however, traceable on some early pieces of north Italian origin.
A more careful investigation of the records of Italian families, and the archives of the many towns at which potteries formerly existed, might throw considerable light on the history and establishment of the various fabriques and the marks and characteristics of their productions; but at present we can only form an approximate opinion by comparison of the examples existing in collections with signed examples by the same hand. We agree in believing with Passeri that the potteries of Pesaro were of very early date, probably anterior to Gubbio, and think that full weight should be given to his statement that the use of the lustre pigments was introduced from the former to the latter fabrique, where it attained to unsurpassed excellence under the able management and improvement of Mº. Giorgio but whether the furnaces of Faenza andForlì were of earlier or subsequent establishment to that of Pesaro is still a matter of conjecture, and of Caffaggiolo and others we have no record. Of the antiquity of these last there can be no doubt. But although producing at the latter end of the fifteenth
and early in the sixteenth centuries some of the most exquisite examples of artistic decoration and of the perfection of manufacture in this class of ceramics, we are unable to find a single proof of the use of the lustrous metallic tints, or a single example of pottery so enriched, which can with probability be ascribed tothe Faenza furnaces. The same remark applies to other potteries on the northern side of the Apennines.
The Piedmontese and Lombard cities do not appear to have encouraged the potter’s art to an equal extent in the 15th and 16th centuries, neither can we learn of any excellence attained in Venice till the establishment of Durantine and Pesarese artists at that city in the middle of the latter period. Possibly, the fine dish (engraved p.33) may be of that manufacture: the costumes have a Venetian character. Perhaps commerce did for the Queen of the Adriatic by the importation of Rhodian, Damascus, and other eastern wares, what native industry supplied to the pomp and luxury of the hill cities of Umbria; for it must be borne in mind that the finer sorts of enamelled or glazed pottery, decorated by artistic hands, were only attainable by the richer class of purchasers; more modest wares or wooden trenchers, and ancestral copper vessels, contenting the middle class. The northern duchies, Ferrara, Rimini, and Ravenna, also encouraged the art, but to a smaller extent than that of Urbino. It would seem that the use of the white stanniferous enamel did not become general in Italy until some years after the death of Luca della Robbia, in 1481; and was not adopted by the potters of Umbria before the end of the fifteenth century.
Thehistory of the development, perfection, and decline of the ceramic art of the renaissance in Italy is so intimately connected with and centred round that of the dukedom of Urbino, that in tracing its progress we must also briefly call to memory the fortunes and the failures of that noble house.
In 1443 what had been but an unimportant mountain fief was erected into a duchy, and the house of Montefeltro ruled a fair territory in the person of the infamous Oddantonio, the first duke of Urbino. On his violent death in 1444 Federigo, his illegitimate brother, succeeded to the dukedom. Of enlightened mind, as well as of martial capacity, he developed the native capabilities of the country and gathered about him at the court of Urbino the science and learning of the period. He built a noble castellated palace at Urbino, for the embellishment of which he invited the leading artists of the day. A patron of all art, and a great collector, he encouraged the manufacture of the maiolica wares which flourished under his reign. On his death in 1482 his son Guidobaldo I. continued his father’s patronage to the ceramic artists of the duchy, although much occupied in the Italian wars consequent on the French invasion by Charles VIII. Passeri states that fine maiolica (by which he means that covered with the tin enamel) was introduced into Pesaro in 1500; and there is some reason to believe that the new process came from Tuscany. It differed materially in composition and manufacture from the “mezza majolica” wares to which it was very superior, and was known as “Porcellana,” a name applied at that period in Italy to the choicer description of enamelled earthenware. Passeri also states that in the inventory of the ducal palaces a large quantity of painted “majolica” vases were included under this name. The superior whiteness of the enamel, more nearly approaching to that of oriental porcelain, was probably the reason for its adoption; but we must not confound the term as used in this sense with its technical meaning in reference to a decorative design known as “a porcellana.”
The introduction of the new enamel, which afforded a better ground for painting, did not cause the use of the bright metallic colours and prismatic glaze to be relinquished at those potteries where it had become established, but it appears to have stimulated a development in the artistic productions of other places, the wares of which before that period were less attractive. The botega of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio seems to have been at this time the great centre of the process of embellishment with the golden and ruby metallic lustres; and, indeed, we have little or no knowledge of artistic pottery produced at that fabrique which is not so enriched. From some technicality in the process of the manufacture, some local advantage, or some secret in the composition, almost a monopoly of its use was established at Gubbio, for we have the evidence of well-known examples that from the end of the first to the commencement of the last quarter of the 15th century many pieces painted by the artists of Pesaro, Urbino, and Castel Durante, were sent there to receive the additional enrichment of the lustre colours. Pieces may be seen in collections signed in blue by the artist Francesco Xanto and others which have been subsequently lustred at Gubbio, and again signed in the metallic pigment by the “maestro” of that botega. At Diruta also its use appears to have been extensive though not to so exclusive a degree nor on wares of such high character as at Gubbio, neither are we enabled bythe possession of examples to conclude that the works or other fabriques were sent to Diruta for the additional embellishment.
The crude drawing of the earlier ware improved very slowly; in 1502 tiles executed for the palace at Pesaro were still of sorry design; but it developed by the introduction of half tints, the colouring of the drapery, and in the composition of the groups of figures, inspired by the works of Timoteo della Vite and other artists of the Umbrian school. At Pesaro the art appears to have attained its highest perfection at the botega of the Lanfranco family, about 1540-45.
The establishment of the ducal Court at Urbino naturally drew more favour to the potteries of that city, and of its near neighbour Castel Durante. The latter of these appears also to have been a seat of this industry from very remote times, and not only to have furnished large quantities of glazed earthenware but also artistic works of the highest merit. Castel Durante not only produced fine wares at home but artists of great ability emigrated from her, establishing themselves at various places. Hence originally came the Fontana family, the most important producers of the higher class of decorative pottery at Urbino. At Venice Francesco Pieragnolo in 1545, accompanied by his father Gian-Antonio da Pesaro, formed a botega; but his wares are not among the earliest dated pieces made in that city, where we know that Mº Ludovico was producing admirable works five years previously, and Mº Jacomo da Pesaro in 1542. A member of the Fontana family, Camillo, younger brother of the celebrated Orazio, went to Florence, and another Mº Camillo to Ferrara in 1567, by the request of the then reigning duke, Alfonso II.; in 1600 we find that Maestro Diomede Durante had a pottery at Rome, producing pieces painted by Gio. Paulo Savino, in the style of the Urbino grotesques on white ground, which had been brought to such perfection by the Fontana family. Another artist of this family, Guido diSavino, is stated to have previously established himself at Antwerp.
At Urbino and Gubbio the shaped pieces, the vases, cisterns, &c. were of large size admirably modelled, as, for instance, the fine vase at South Kensington, no. 515, in the woodcut; they were also richly “istoriata” with subjects from sacred and profane history, poetry, &c.: the produce of the celebrated Fontana botega being, perhaps, the most important of them. Here also worked the able artist Francesco Xanto, from 1530 to 1541 (latterly in the pottery of Francesco Silvano), so many of whose painted pieces were subsequently decorated with ruby and gold lustre at Gubbio.
From 1520 to 1540 the art constantly advanced in this duchy, and had retained great perfection till 1560. It is probable that the potteries at Castel Durante were of earlier foundation than those at Urbino and, from their first establishment to the decadence of the art were some of the most important and productive furnaces of the duchy. Here several boteghe existed, one of which was under the direction of the cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpasso who, himself an artist and a professor of medicine, was doubtless well advanced in the chemical knowledge of his day. He worked about 1550, and has left the important and interesting manuscript, entitled “Li tre libri dell’ arte dell’ Vasajo,” now in the library of the South Kensington museum. This manuscript was printed and published at Rome in 1857, and a translation in French at Paris in 1841, both editions with engraved copies of the numerous designs.
Guidobaldo I. was succeeded in the dukedom by his nephew Francesco Maria Della Rovere, in 1508, who, incurring the resentment of pope Leo the tenth, was obliged to retire into Lombardy but was reinstated in 1517. Rome was sacked in 1527, and history accuses Guidobaldo of having permitted the horrible act without interfering to prevent it. He died from poison in 1538 at Pesaro, whither he had retired after a reverseful life and reign. His duchess was the excellent Leonora Gonzaga. She built a palace near Pesaro, known as the “Imperiale,” richly decorated by able artists among whom was Raffaelle dal Colle, whose designs were also adopted for the maiolica ware. The frequently repeated error of ascribing the actual painting, as also the making designs for this ware, to the great Raffaelle Sanzio may probably have arisen from the similarity in the Christian names of these artists.
The development of the manufacture in the duchy of Urbino may be considered to have attained its culminating point about 1540, after which, for some twenty years, it continued in great excellence not only as regards the “istoriati,” but more particularly in the shaped pieces and dishes (of which we engrave an example p.40) decorated with the so-called “Urbino arabesques” on a clear white ground; the subjects painted in medallions, surrounded by grotesques of admirable invention and execution,after the style known as “Raffaellesque.” But excellent and highly decorative as are the finer products of this period from the furnaces of the Fontana of Urbino, or of the Lanfranchi of
Pesaro, they want to the eye of the true connoisseur the sentiment and expressive drawing, the exquisite finish and delicacy, the rich colour, and the admirable design of the earlier works produced at the Casa Pirota in Faenza, at Forlì, Castel Durante, Siena, and Caffaggiolo, in the latter years of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth centuries, and by Mº Giorgio atGubbio, many of which rival in beauty the exquisite miniature illuminations of that palmy period of Italian art. The service in the Correr museum in Venice, supposed to have been painted by an unknown artist of Faenza and dated 1482, is of high quality;
and we possess at South Kensington works by his hand, particularly a plaque or tile (No. 69) on which is a representation of the Resurrection of our Lord, worthy of being ranked with the highest productions of pictorial art. The borders of grotesques on the plates of this earlier period differ greatly from those of the Urbino factories of the middle time, being generally grounded on dark blue or yellow, and executed with great delicacy of touchand power of colouring; the centres of the smaller pieces are usually occupied by single figures, small medallion subjects, portrait heads, amorini, shields-of-arms, &c.; frequently they were intended for “amatorii” or love tokens. Some of the most careful and highly finished productions of Mº Giorgio are of this early time, before he was in the habit of signing with the well-known initials Mº Gº; the earliest so signed being the admirable St. Francis tazza at South Kensington, dated 1517.
We may therefore affirm that the choicest works in Italian pottery were produced during a period which extended from 1480 to 1520 or 1530; thence till 1560 was its meridian, although some fine works were produced at Urbino by the Fontana till 1570; before that time the ruby lustre had been lost, and soon after a rapid decline of design and execution reduces all to painful inferiority. The woodcut (p.41) is from a splendid dish, dated 1533, no. 1748, at South Kensington.
Guidobaldo II., who had succeeded to Francesco Maria in 1538, wanted the force of character and nice appreciation of the higher literature and art which had distinguished his father; but he was a great patron of the ceramic productions of his duchy, and sought to improve the designs used by painters on pottery by the introduction of subjects of higher character and composition. With this view, lavish of expense, he bought original drawings by Raffaelle and the engravings of Marc Antonio from that master’s designs. He also made presents of services to contemporary princes and friends. One, given to the emperor Charles V., a double service, is mentioned by Vasari, the vases of which had been painted from the designs of Battista Franco, a Venetian, whom he had invited to Urbino. Another service of which pieces are extant was given by the duke to Andrea da Volterra, his confessor. For the Spezieria or medical dispensary, attached to his own palace, he ordered a complete set of vases and drug pots; designs were prepared for these by B. Franco and Raffaelle dal Colle and executed at the botega ofOrazio Fontana, by whom some of the pieces were painted. They were subsequently presented by duke Francesco Maria II. to the Santa Casa at Loreto, where the greater part of them are still preserved. Some of them were engraved by Bartoli. The story tells us that so highly were they esteemed by Christina of Sweden that she offered to buy them for their weight of gold, after a grand duke of Florence had more prudently proposed an equal number of silver vessels of like weight.
Orazio Fontana, the great artist potter and painter of Urbino, worked for the duke from 1540 to 1560 and carried the art to the highest perfection. Passeri states that Orazio had no equal in the execution of his paintings, the distribution of his colours, and in the calculation of the effect of the fire upon them in the production of his wares. He also quotes various contemporary authors who speak of the excellence of the maiolica of this period. After the death of Orazio Fontana and Battista Franco works of an inferior class only were produced from the designs of the Flemish engravers. From 1580 the decline of the art was rapid. It met but small encouragement from duke Francesco Maria II., who succeeded in 1574, except during his residence at Castel Durante where it still, though feebly, survived. He abdicated in favour of the Holy See, and died in 1631. The rich collections of art then remaining at Urbino became the property of Ferdinand de’ Medici, who had married the duke’s granddaughter, and were removed to Florence.
Artistic manufactories had, in addition to those of the Umbrian duchy, greatly increased in various parts of Italy under the encouragement of powerful local families; but none appear to have attained to higher excellence than those of Tuscany. At Caffaggiolo under the powerful patronage of the Medici, and at Siena, some of the most excellent pieces of this beautiful pottery were produced, rivalling but not surpassing the fine examples of Faenza.
The Tuscan pieces are remarkable for their rich enamel, forthe force and brilliancy of the colours, and for the execution and design of the grotesque borders and other decoration; a deep rich blue, a peculiar opaque but bright red, and a brilliant yellow, are characteristic pigments. The existence of the former fabrique has been made known to us only by the inscription of the name on some few pieces preserved in cabinets. From their style and the mark accompanying the inscription we are enabled to detect many examples, some of which bear concurrent testimony in the subjects connected with the history of the Medici family with