Another very distinct and perhaps more recent class, theAnatolian, consists of those wares frequently found in collections, as cups and saucers, sprinklers, perfume vases, covered bowls, and the like, generally pieces of small size. The ground is usually white, sometimes incised with cross lines by means of a piece of wood scratching the soft paste, with a gay decoration of many colours, among which a brilliant yellow is conspicuous in scale work, lattice and diaper patterns, flowers, &c. Its glaze is frequently not brilliant, but rather rough on the surface; but the pieces are well baked. This variety is ascribed to the fabrique of Kutahia in Anatolia.
There is yet another variety of this section which is somewhat exceptional, approaching as it does in composition to the first division of the Persian wares, and on the other hand to the decoration of the earlier pieces of the Hispano-moresque. It is composed of a sandy paste of the kind general to this section, and is decorated either in black outline relieved or filled in with blue painted directly on the paste, and covered by a thick translucent glaze of a creamy tone, running into tears at the bottom of the piece; or glazed entirely with a translucent dark blue glass, overwhich the decoration is painted in a rich lustre colour, varying between the golden and ruby tints of the Italian Majolica, and differing considerably from those upon the Hispano-moresque wares.
We give on the preceding page three or four marks from various pieces of Persian or rather “Damascus” ware.
Before we pass to another class, it may be well again to direct the reader’s attention to that important application of glazed oriental pottery, already referred to, and which has been in use more or less throughout the east from a period of remote antiquity. Indeed, there is perhaps no instance in which the superiority of oriental taste in surface decoration is more distinctly shown than in the use of enamelled, or more properly speaking, siliceous glazed tiles, as a covering for external and internal wall space. We have already seen how fragments of such embellishments have been yielded by the ruins of Assyria and Babylon, by Arabia in the seventh, and Persia in the twelfth century; and Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Constantinople still have brilliant examples of this exercise of the potter’s art.
The distressing state of ruin or neglect into which many of the tombs and mosques, so beautified, have been reduced or permitted to fall greatly detracts from their effect, although not without its charm to the painter’s eye and it is refreshing to see them, as at Constantinople, in a somewhat better state of preservation. In that city there is excellent work of this kind in the old palace of the Seraglio, where the writer noticed tiles remarkable for their size and for the perfection of their manufacture. Some of these, nearly two feet square, are covered with the most elegant arabesque diapering of foliage and flowers intertwined, among which birds and insects are depicted. These may probably have been the work of a Persian potter. But it is in the tomb of Soliman the great, built in 1544, that the effect of this mode of decoration can be studied to better advantage. Here the entire walls of the interior are faced with tiles of admirable diaperpatterns, within borders of equal elegance, adapted to the form of the wall which they panel and following the subtle outlines of the window openings, which, filled in with gem-like coloured glass between their intricate tracery, produce an effect of the greatest richness and harmony. The application of glazed pottery for decorating wall surface seems never to have taken root in Greece or Italy (although slabs of glass of various colours were used by the Romans for that purpose), where Mosaic had established itself long anterior to the advance of oriental influence; and even in the most palmy days of the production of Italian majolica and painted pottery, nothing of this kind was attempted by her artists beyond an occasional flooring—with the exception of Luca della Robbia, who not only covered ceilings with tiles between the relievo subjects on the spandrils and the centre, as seen at San Miniato and the Pazzi chapel at Santa Croce in Florence, but executed roundels and arch fillings of tiles, painted with subjects on the flat surface. Germany made great use of tiles for facing stoves and other purposes in the sixteenth century, but their inspiration was not oriental; and, again, the Dutch tiles, much used in England during the last century, are well known but ornamented on a false principle of decorative art. In the Indian court of the international exhibition of 1871 were examples of Zenana windows and wall tiles from Sinde, of recent manufacture, and of precisely similar character in body and glaze to the class of wares now under consideration. They, moreover, show another mode of decoration, known as “pâte sur pâte,” in which the design is painted on the surface of the clay in a slip or “engobe” of lighter colour underneath the glaze; a manner of ornamentation found upon early Chinese porcelain, and upon that ascribed by M. Jacquemart to Persia.
These tiles, together with shaped pieces of the same Indian ware, are very interesting, being without doubt the modern representatives of a remote manufacture and having the closest affinity with the ancient Egyptian glazed pottery. Whence they werederived or which the parent stock is a question the answer to which we are not at present in a position to do more than guess at. In France and England reproductions have appeared, many of which are excellent from the talent of their painters or from the technical qualities of their manufacture: those produced by the Messrs. Minton, copied or derived from oriental originals, are particularly beautiful.
Hispano-moresque Pottery.
Thisnumerous and now well-defined class of wares was a few years since indiscriminately grouped with the lustred Maiolica of Italy, in which country the larger number of specimens now in our collections had been preserved, and whence they have been procured. Many hesitated to believe in their Spanish origin, thinking it more probable that they were the work of Moorish potters established in the sister peninsula. The correspondence, however, of technical character with the “azulejos,” the well-known tiles which adorn the palace of the Alhambra at Seville, and with the celebrated “jarra” or Alhambra vase, as also a marked difference between these and any wares of known Italian manufacture, led to the conviction that they must be of Spanish origin, and the work of the Moorish potters and their descendants who had been established in that country.
Under this belief they were classed together as Hispano-arabian enamelled and lustred wares, but this appellation would connect them with the so-called Saracens who conquered that country inA.D.712. The first Arab invaders were themselves expelled in 756 by Abd-el-Rhama, who caused himself to be proclaimed caliph at Cordova. This city thus became the great centre of his power, and here was erected the mosque of which the decoration attests the exquisite oriental taste of its founders. The ornamental wall tiles on this building are of truly Hispano-arabian manufacture.
The rule of the successors of Abd-el-Rhama ended and the linebecame extinct in 1038, soon after which time the Moorish conquest was completed. In 1235 Granada became the chief seat of the Moorish rulers, and there they erected the fortress-palace of the Alhambra about 1273. After an occupation of the country for four centuries the Moors were conquered in 1492. The Christian element would then predominate in the decoration of the pottery; and in 1566 the last blow was struck at Moorish art by the promulgation of a decree prohibiting the speaking or writing of their language, and forbidding the use to men and women of their national dress and veil, and the execution of decorative works in the Moresque style.
When first recognized as a distinct family these wares were found to be difficult of classification, from the entire absence of dates or names of manufactories. Labarte and others considered the copper-lustred pieces to be the earlier, but Mr. Robinson, with his usual acuteness, saw in the ornamentation of various examples reasons for reversing this arrangement, and suggested one which subsequent observation has only tended to confirm. He placed those pieces having a decoration in a paler lustre with interlacings and other ornaments in manganese and blue, coats of arms, &c., in the earlier period; those having the ornament in the paler lustre only, without colour, of nearly equal date, as also some of the darker coppery examples with shields of arms; and of a later period those so glaring in copper-coloured lustre as to be more painful than pleasing to the eye.
M. Davillier (to whose researches into the history of these wares we are greatly indebted) considers that in all probabilityMalagawas the earliest site of the manufacture, and argues that its maritime situation and trade with the east and its proximity to Granada would warrant that opinion, which is strengthened by the earliest documentary evidence yet brought to light. One Ibn-Batoutah a native of Tangier, writing in 1350 after journeying through the east, states that “at Malaga, the beautiful gilt pottery or porcelain is made, which is exported to the most distant countries.” He makes no mention of a fabrique at Granada in describing that city, and we may therefore reasonably conclude that Malaga was the centre of this industry in the Moorish kingdom, and if so there is great probability that the celebrated Alhambra vase was made there. From the style of its ornamentation, the form of the characters in the inscriptions, and other inferences, the date of this piece may be fairly assigned to the middle of the 14th century, which would be about the same period as that traveller’s visit to the city. It has nevertheless been ascribed by others to an earlier time, about 1320. This vase is so generally and well known that we need only allude to its characteristic form and richly decorated surface. It is said to have been found in the 16th century under the pavement of the Alhambra together with several others, all of which were filled with gold; a tradition which may, perhaps, have some foundation in fact.
The Alhambra vase was copied at Sèvres in 1842, and since by the Messrs. Deck in faience, of the original size after a cast and photographs procured by M. Davillier. This last is now in the South Kensington museum.
The fabrique of Malaga existed in the sixteenth century; and the plateau engraved p.78was probably made there. We learn from Lucio Marineo writing of the memorable things of Spain in 1517, that “at Malaga are made also very beautiful vases of faience.” After this date no further record is found, and M. Davillier thinks it probable that the works gradually declined as those of Valencia increased in importance, and that by the middle of the sixteenth century they had entirely ceased. He attributes to these potteries three large deep basins and two vases in the hôtel Cluny at Paris, which are covered with designs in goldenrefletand blue of great similarity to those of the Alhambra vase, and also the fine vase from the Soulages collection at South Kensington.
After the fabrique of Malaga that ofMajorcais thought to be the most ancient, and the extension of its manufactures by commerce is indirectly proved by the adoption of the term“Majolica” by the potters of Italy for such of their wares as were decorated with the metallic lustre. Scaliger, writing in the first half of the sixteenth century, speaks highly of the wares of the
Balearic islands: but not being an “expert” in ceramic productions, after praising the porcelain recently brought from China, admires what he calls their imitations made at Majorca. “We call them (he says) ‘majolica,’ changing one letter in the name of the island where we are assured that the most beautiful aremade:” an interesting testimony to the importation of these wares into Italy and the knowledge of their origin, as also to the derivation of the term applied to the home manufacture of Pesaro and Gubbio.
Although presumably of much earlier date no record of this pottery occurs till that of Giovanni di Bernardi da Uzzano, the son of a rich Pisan merchant, who in 1442 wrote a treaty on commerce and navigation, published by Paquini, in which he speaks of the manufactures of Majorca and Minorca, particularly mentioning faience which “had then a very large sale in Italy.” We have evidence that the principal seat of the manufacture was at Ynca, in the interior of the island; and in confirmation of this discovery some plates have been observed by M. Davillier in collections on which the arms of that island are represented. One is in the hôtel Cluny, and is probably of the fifteenth century. It is Moresque in style with illegible inscriptions in an odd mixture of the Arabic and Gothic characters; the lustre of a red colour and the arms in the centre. These arms are, paly gules and or, on a fess argent a dog in the act of bounding, sable.
There would seem also to have been a fabrique at Iviça for Vargas, in his description of the Balearic islands, says, “It is much to be regretted that Iviça has ceased to make her famous vases of faience, destined for exportation as well as for local consumption.” But of their precise nature he gives us no information and we have no knowledge.
The kingdom ofValenciain the time of the Romans was noted for its works in pottery; those produced at Saguntum, the present Murviedro, having a great reputation at that period according to Pliny, who mentions the jasper red pottery of Saguntum where 1,200 workmen were employed.
To these, after the occupation of the Goths, succeeded the Arab workmen who accompanied the Mussulman conquest in 711. Again, when the Moors were in 1239 subjected to Christian domination the potters’ art was considered of sufficient importanceto claim a special charter from the king, who granted it to theSaracensof Xativa, a small town now called San-Felipe. This charter provides that every master potter making vases, domestic vessels, tiles, “rajolas” (an Arabic name for wall-tiles, synonymous with “azulejos”), should pay a “besant” annually and freely pursue his calling.
Sir Wm. Drake in his notes on Venetian ceramics cites an ordinance of the Venetian senate in 1455, declaring that no earthenware works of any kind should be introduced into the dominions of the Signory except crucibles (“correzzoli”) andMajolica of Valencia; an important fact proving the value that was attached to the Spanish lustre wares in Italy in the middle of the fifteenth century. The woodcut p.81represents a fine plateau at South Kensington, golden lustred; of about the year 1500.
Marineo Siculo, writing in 1517, devotes a chapter to the utensils and other objects of faience made in Spain, in which he states that “the most esteemed are those of Valencia, which are so well worked and so well gilded;” and Capmany records a decree of the municipal council of Barcelona in 1528 relative to the exportation of faience to Sicily and elsewhere, in which “la loza de Valencia” is named. Again Barreyros a Portuguese, in his “Chorographia,” praising the pottery of Barcelona says that it is “even superior” to that of Valencia. The expulsion of the Moors in 1610 by Philip III. gave the fatal blow to this industry, as we learn from contemporary authors that many of the banished artizans were potters (“olleros”).
From time immemorial St. John the evangelist has been particularly venerated at Valencia, and in the grand processions of Corpus Christi the emblematic eagle is carried, holding in his beak a banderole on which is inscribed the first sentence of his gospel: “In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum.” On some pieces of Hispano-moresque ware this sentence is inscribed, and the eagle sometimes covers the front, sometimes the back. There is therefore reason to infer that these were made inone of the fabriques of Valencia, and if so their style would be to a considerable extent typical of the Valencian pottery. The decoration was probably inspired by the wares of Malaga, and it is likely that many of the pieces of the fifteenth century, bearing inscriptions in Gothic characters with animals, &c. in blue, may be of this fabrique.
In the British museum is a plate painted with an antelope and Moresque ornament in blue, and with the inscription “Senta Catalina Guarda Nos:” others occur, though very rarely, withSpanish inscriptions. At the commencement of the 17th century the Valencian wares had lost nearly all their Moresque character, and the employment of the copper lustre only was retained: the designs having figures in the costumes of that period and coarse leafage or birds with “rococo” ornaments.
It would thus appear that the fabrique of Malaga was the most ancient, and that of Valencia the most important in Spain; but other potteries existed, and their productions were widely distributed. The woodcut represents a Valencian dish with goldenlustre, of the 15th century. That these wares were imported into England is proved by fragments found in London, on one of which, in the British museum, is represented a man in the costume of the period of Henry the fourth, about 1400.
Makers’ names have never been observed upon pieces of this pottery, and marks are very rarely met with. The above marksare on the back of two small plates with deep centres, in which is painted a shield of arms bearing a crowned eagle with open wings in blue, the rest of the surface being diapered with small vine or briony leaves and interlaced tendrils in concentric order, of golden lustre on the creamy white ground.
These pieces are perhaps of the same service, probably of Malaga or Valencia, and may be of the earlier half of the 15th century; they are in the writer’s possession. In Mr. Henderson’s rich collection is a vase on one side of which is the inscription, of which we give a facsimile:
It reads “Illustrissimo Signore Cardinale D’Este in Urbe Romæ.”
Specimens of a lustred ware have been brought from Sicily, differing materially from that of Spain, and perhaps forming a connecting link between that and the earlier Persian pottery. They are formed of an ordinary clay covered with an earthy or stanniferous (?) wash, which is again coated with a rich translucent blue glaze on which a diapering of vermicular ornament in coppery lustre covers the whole piece, except that the edges and handles are also painted in lustre. This ware is by no means common; it occurs in the form of plates, covered bowls, and “albarelli:” and is supposed to be the workmanship of Moorish potters at Calata-Girone.
Italian Pottery; Sgraffiati, and Caffaggiolo.
Comingnow to Italian pottery, we must speak first ofsgraffiati,graffiti, or incised wares. This mode of ornamentation is one of the most primitive and universal in a ruder form, although it appears but little on the early glazed wares of our own country; of those of France a fine example, attributed to the 14th century, is preserved at Sèvres. In Italy, as was the case in all other varieties of pictorial art, it was brought to a high degree of perfection, not merely as a manner of ornamenting pottery but applied on a large scale to mural decoration. It appears to have been in use from an early period, examples of a coarse kind occurring among the plates incrusted in the towers of churches of the 12th and 13th centuries at Pisa and elsewhere, and it was probably in use before or coeval with the earliest painted wares.
Its method as applied to pottery is described by Piccolpasso in his manuscript, and consists in covering the previously baked “biscuit” of ordinary potter’s clay with a “slip” or “engobe” of the white marl of Vicenza, by dipping it into a bath of that earth milled with water to the consistence of cream; when dry, this white covering, fixed by a slight baking, is scratched through with an iron instrument shewing the design in the red colour of the clay against the superimposed white ground. It is then covered with an ordinary translucent lead glaze, and clouded with yellow and green by slight application of the oxides of iron and copper.
There appears to be a considerable range in the dates of various specimens in collections, some of which are probably among theearliest examples of Italian decorative pottery that have come down to us; others may be of the middle or last quarter of the 15th century and, like the fine example which we engrave, are highly characteristic; great skill is shown upon them in the combination of figures and foliage in relievo with the incised ornamentation. Nearly all the pieces of this class are probably the work of one botega, and are distinguished by the character of their designs; a border of mulberry leaves is very general, or shields of the “pavoise” or kite form. Judging also from the sort of florid Gothic character to be seen in some of the leafage mouldings, from the costumes of the north of Italy in the 15th century, and from the lion supporters and other details which connect them with north Italian art, we have little hesitation in believing that they were produced in Lombardy or the Venetian mainland.
Of the more important examples, the Louvre possesses a fine cup on a raised stem and supported by three lions; in the interior, a man habited in the costume of the 15th century stands playinga mandolin between two females, one of whom sings while the other plays the tambourine; the raised and incised mouldings on this piece are very characteristic. In the British museum are some fine dishes, one of which is remarkable for the admirable execution of the work, on which are represented figures in the costume of the 15th century, festoons of fruit and other ornaments. On another are the figures of a gentleman and a lady who plays the viol, in the costume of the 15th or early 16th century standing “dos à dos;” on her side is a “pavoise” shield bearing the “biscia” or serpent of the Visconti, while the man supports himself on one bearing the flaming bomb-shell, the impresa of Alfonso d’Este, borne by him at the battle of Ravenna in 1512.
In the writer’s collection are two early dishes, one of which is remarkable for a raised flower in the centre and incised decoration on front and back. He also possesses a large dish, 19¼ inches in diameter, having a medallion central subject of the Virgin and Child: the rest of the piece being covered with interlacing branches of what may be mulberry bearing leaves and fruit, a serpentine wreath of the same encircling the border.
It is probable that were the archives of Florence thoroughly searched some record might be found of the establishment or existence atCaffaggioloof an artistic pottery encouraged and patronized by the Medici family, but at present we have no such recorded history. Here again the objects themselves have been their best and only historians. It was but a few years since that the ill indited name of this botega, noticed upon the back of a plate, was read as that of the artist who had painted it; but the discovery of other more legible signatures proved that at this spot important and highly artistic works had been produced. The occurrence of a monogram upon several, with the comparison of their technical details, has led to the recognition of many pieces, and revealed the fact that this fabrique had existed from an early period, and was productive of a large number of pieces of varying quality.
M. Jacquemart surmises that at Caffaggiolo Luca della Robbia learnt the nature of the enamel glaze, which he applied to his relievos in terra cotta. We know that Luca painted subjects on plain surfaces, enamelled with the stanniferous glaze as early as the year 1456, when he executed the painted tiles which form a kind of framing to the tomb of Benozzo Federighi in the church of San Francesco de Paolo, under the hill of Bellosguardo. The most important work by him of this nature is the lunette over one of the doors in the entrance-hall of the “Opera del Duomo” in Florence. Whether, learnt from him, this enamel was adopted at the Grand Ducalfabriqueat an early period, or whether he there obtained the knowledge which he applied and modified to his own uses, remains a question, the answer to which would be facilitated by the proved date of the establishment of that pottery, or the occurrence of pieces anterior to the tiles enamelled and painted by Luca; but upon these points we unfortunately have not as yet discovered any recorded memorial.
It is worthy of remark that although many are of very early date no piece of aMezzaware, confidently assignable to this establishment, is known to the writer; all that have come under his notice are enamelled with the white stanniferous glaze, no instance of the use of anengobeor slip having been observed. The woodcut p.90is from an early and probably Tuscan plateau.
The leading characteristics of the Caffaggiolo wares are a glaze of rich and even quality, and purely white; and the use of a very dark cobalt blue of great intensity but brilliant as that of lapis lazuli, frequently in masses as a grounding to the subject: and it would seem laid on purposely with a coarse brush, the strokes of which are very apparent. We give an engraving p.91of a curiously decorated tazza of early date. The colours are green, purple and blue. A bright yellow, an orange of brilliant but opaque quality, a peculiarly liquid and semi-transparent copper green are also found, and another characteristic pigment is an opaque bright Indian red. This pottery has a nearer affinity tothat of Siena than to any other fabrique, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that they had a like origin or that the establishment at Siena emanated from Caffaggiolo. Both resemble in general style the pieces produced at Faenza and Forlì more than those of other fabriques of the northern duchies, or of the Umbrian centres of the art; and it becomes a question as to which can claim the earliest origin, as also the earliest use of the stanniferous enamel glaze. The dates inscribed upon pieces begin in 1507-9, but undated examples, assignable to this locality and of an earlier period, exist in collections.
The use of the metallic lustre seems to have been tried atCaffaggiolo, but from the extreme rarity of examples bearing the mark of or fairly ascribable to that establishment, we may
perhaps infer that only a few experimental pieces were made, and that this method of enrichment was but little used. A small
plateau at South Kensington, no. 7154, represented in the woodcut is an important example, having the mark. As might beexpected, the arms, emblems, and mottoes of the Medici family frequently occur, and occasionally the letters S. P. Q. F. are introduced on labels for “Senatus populusque Florentinus.” M. Jacquemart considers that some of the early groups, &c. in relievo and in the round and early plaques with the sacred emblem, the majority of which are generally ascribed to Faenza, may be of this botega. We quite concur with him in this opinion.
The South Kensington museum is rich in fine specimens of this ware of various date and great variety, some of which are among the most admirable examples of the potter’s art. It is remarkable that we have no recorded names of the artists who painted these beautiful pieces, and it is only at the latter end of the sixteenth century that we find mention of Giacomo and Loys Ridolfi of Caffaggiolo, who emigrated with other potters from the then less encouraged manufactories of Italy to try their fortune in France. M. Jacquemart tells us that these potters or painters founded a “faïencerie” in 1590 at Marchecoul, in Bretagne.
Some confusion has arisen among connoisseurs in France and elsewhere as to the wares of Caffaggiolo and those of Faenza, and indeed it is frequently difficult to draw the line of distinction; but we can hardly follow M. Jacquemart in his historical classification, believing that some of the pieces assigned by him to this fabrique do not really support their claim. A similar remark may apply to many of those in the Louvre ascribed to this pottery by Mons. Darcel.
Two large and finely painted early dishes (presented by Mr. Franks) are in the British museum; they were probably made about 1480-1500. On one is a group of saints, after an engraving by Benedetto Montana, on red ground, with a border of leafage moulding and peacock’s feather ornament. On the other is the subject of the Judgment of Solomon. The colours on these pieces are very rich, with much of the characteristic red pigment; the bold and firm drawing has an archaic tendency which pointsto an early period. The earliest dated piece having a mark and with reason believed to be of this fabrique, is a plate in the style
of Faenza with border of grotesques and central shields of arms, in the painting of which the characteristic red is used andon which is the date 1507 with the mark; that curious combination of letters P.L and O. Another is dated 1509. The letters S. P. Q. F. occur among the ornaments. M. Jacquemart considers as of the first period, those pieces having letters allusive to the Florentine republic, or the Medici arms and emblems; or the motto of Giuliano di Medici. “Glovis” also occurs, which has been ingeniously deciphered as meaning “Si volg,” “it (fortune) turns,” if read backwards: referring to the favour shown to Giuliano when appointed Gonfalonier to the Church. A noble pitcher at South Kensington no. 1715 (p.93) has the Medici arms; and, beneath, also the mottoGlovis. A large carelessly painted dish, in the British museum, the subject Abel’s sacrifice, has the word “GLOVIS” and the letters S. P. Q. R. on the altar, and on the reverse the name, curiously spelt, “In Chafaggilolo” between the ordinary mark twice repeated. The name seems to have been spelt in various ways, as “Cáffagiulo,” “Cafagiol,” “Caffaggiolo,” “Chaffaggiolo,” “Chafaggilolo,” “Gafagizotto,” &c.
Some of the specimens at South Kensington are of extraordinary beauty. Of the more interesting may be instanced no. 7154, lustred, having the Caffaggiolo mark painted on the reverse in the yellow pigment. The large circular dish no. 8928 on which is represented a procession of Leo X. is curious as a contemporary work and for the costume. The St. George after the statue by Donatello, no. 1726, is of great excellence, as is the interesting plate engraved above, p.44, on which a ceramic painter is represented at work in the presence of a gentleman and lady, probably portraits of personages of high standing, as also of the painter himself. It is to be regretted that he refrained from recording their names and was content with affixing only the monogram of the fabrique at the back of the piece. The beautiful plate with central subject of Vulcan forging a wing and elegant border of grotesques, masks, cupids, &c., no. 2990, is probably by the same hand as the two last referred to and is a fine example. The large jug already referred to having the Mediciarms on the front and other devices of that family, no. 1715, is remarkable for its excellence of glaze and colour, as well as for
its historical associations. So, again, is the vase no. 321 made for the Medici at a somewhat later date; and which we also engrave.
Siena and Pesaro.
Well-nighall the history we have of the early artistic pottery ofSienamay be read upon the specimens of her produce, preserved in our museums and private collections. A considerable number of pieces, evidently the work of one able hand, has been variously assigned to the furnaces of Faenza, of Caffaggiolo, and of Pesaro; to the first two from a general similarity in the character of their design. On the other hand, the initials I. P. occurring in large characters on the reverse of some of the pieces were presumed to be those of the words “In Pesaro,” and led to a confusion of them with others really painted at the Lanfranchi works at Pesaro and marked with the same initials but in a smaller form; standing for the signature of the artist, “jiacomo pinsit.” These last, then unknown to collectors, were cited by Passeri who was supposed to refer to the far more beautiful works now under consideration.
The acquisition, however, of a pavement of tiles from the Petrucci palace at Siena, dated 1509, and the knowledge of the existence of others of a similar stamp in the church of San Francesco in that city, the style of handling as well as the design and colouring upon which agreed closely with these works; a fine dish in the British museum in the same manner, and on which occurs one of the same coats of arms as those upon the pavement of the Petrucci; and the further acquisition of a small plate, the painting of which in blue camaïeu is assuredly in the manner of the finer examples above referred to, and which issigned on the reverse “fata i Siena da mº benedetto;” form together a chain of evidence conclusive as to the existence of this fabrique, and the origin of the various pieces in question.
The South Kensington museum possesses very important specimens of this master’s work; and the connexion of the
several examples is very minutely traced in the large catalogue of Maiolica. We need only, therefore, generally observe that they are worthy of being ranked among the most excellent productions of the potter’s skill in Italy during the earlier years of the 16th century; and that in respect of their technical characteristics, and the tone and manner of their colouring and design, they are more nearly allied to the productions of the Caffaggiolo furnaces, from which in all probability the inspiration of them was derived. We give woodcuts of three of these beautiful pieces: nos. 1569, 1792, and 4487. The last of these is very interesting on account of the mark and inscription upon the reverse (also engraved p.99), showing that the painter was probably Benedetto himself,who was then the head of the establishment. The drawing of the central figure is masterly and finished with the utmost care.
One of the finest specimens of this master belongs to Mr. Henderson; the central subject is that of Mutius Scævola before Porsenna; it is painted with great care and is surrounded by a border of grotesques on orange ground. On the reverse is the
mark in the accompanying woodcut. The grotesques upon the
border of a large dish in the British museum are painted upon a black ground, an unusual style which also occurs on some of the tiles of the Petrucci pavement, and is we believe almost peculiar to this botega.
We lose sight of the Sienese pottery for two centuries, when it again appears under the then best ceramic painter in Italy, Ferdinando Maria Campani who is said, but we do not know onwhat exact authority, to have worked also at Castelli and at San Quirico. A piece signed by him is at South Kensington. His subjects, as in this instance, were frequently taken from the Bible series of Raffaelle as rendered by Marc Antonio’s engravings, and from the works of the Caracci. Some extremely well executed tiles, plates, &c. copied and adapted from the old, have also been produced within the last few years at Siena under the superintendence of signor Pepi, a druggist, opposite the Prefecture. We have occasionally met with some of these, scratched and chipped by otherartiststo suit the modern-antique market.
The small town ofMonte Lupo, nestling under its “rocca” on the southern bank of the river at the opening of the Val d’ Arno inferiore, is on the road from Florence and near to Empoli. Its pottery is distinguished (or we should rather say notorious) for having produced the ugliest and most inferior painted pieces that bear the signature of their maker and the place where they were made.
But a ware of a different kind formed of a red clay and glazed with a rich treacle-brown or black glaze, the forms of the pieces being sometimes extremely elegant, has been also assigned to this locality. Some of them are enriched with gilding and with subjects painted in oil colours, not by a ceramic artist. We are informed, however, by signor Giuseppe Raffaelli that wares of this description were made at Castel Durante, and that a fine example of them, with portraits of a count Maldini and his wife, is preserved in the library at Urbania. He describes them as made of a red earth covered with an intensely black glaze, on which the oil painting and gilding were executed. It is nevertheless probable that Monte Lupo produced a similar ware, and pieces occur ornamented with reliefs and with raised work,engobé, with a white or yellow clay on the brown ground, by the process known aspâte sur pâte. Certain pieces marbled on the surface to imitate tortoiseshell, agate, &c. are ascribed to this pottery.
At Sèvres is a tazza with ill painted subject on white ground and inscribed,—
“Dipinta, Giovinale Tereni“da Montelupo.”
“Dipinta, Giovinale Tereni“da Montelupo.”
“Dipinta, Giovinale Tereni“da Montelupo.”
and a dish in the hôtel Cluny at Paris, painted with the subject of the rape of Helen somewhat in the manner of the Urbino wares, has at the back,
“Vrate délina“fate in Monte.”
“Vrate délina“fate in Monte.”
“Vrate délina“fate in Monte.”
This, we think, more likely to have been the production of Monte Lupo than of Monte Feltro, to which it has been ascribed.
There can be little doubt that potteries existed in the neighbourhood of the important commercial city ofPisa, and it is more than probable that the painted and incisedbacini, which are encrusted into her church towers and façades, are mostly of local manufacture during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries. On this subject we must refer the reader to the remarks in thechapter on Persian and Hispano-moresque wares. Among the latter, references will be found to two writers who stated that a commerce existed between Valencia and Pisa, from whence faïence was imported into Spain in exchange for the wares of that country. It does not however follow that this faïence was entirely of Pisan production, although exported thence; but it is not improbable that a considerable quantity was made there for exportation.
Antonio Beuter, praising the wares of Spain, says that they are equal in beauty to those of Pisa and other places. This was about 1550. Early in the next century Escolano says, speaking of the wares of Manises, “that in exchange for the faïences that Italy sends us from Pisa, we export to that country cargoes of that of Manises.”
In the collection of baron Alphonse de Rothschild, of Paris, is a large and well formed vase with serpent handles, under which the name PISA is inscribed on tablets. It is much in the manner of the later Urbino wares, having grotesques on a white ground, but more nearly approaching those examples at South Kensington (nos. 321 and 323) having the arms of the Medici, which we have ascribed in the large catalogue to Caffaggiolo or Florence. It has been suggested that this vase may be of the Pesaro fabrique, and that the word upon it was merely a variation in spelling the first half of the name Pisaro; but we see no reason for accepting such an explanation or that Pisa should be denied the small honour of having produced this example, the only one inscribed with her name.
There can be very little doubt that a manufactory of glazed earthenware existed atPesaroor in its immediate outskirts from a very early period, and that it probably succeeded to the works established there in Roman times, the remains of which have occasionally been brought to light; but with the exception of the recorded names of certain potters, occurring in deeds and records which are preserved among the public archives of thecity, we are uninformed, and unable to recognize the produce of these potteries or to know their characteristics.
Anterior to 1540 we have no signed and dated example, and should therefore be reduced to the position of entire ignorance as to their previous productions but for the work of the indefatigable archæologist Giambattista Passeri. Born in 1694 at Farnese in the Campagna di Roma (where his father, of a patrician family of Pesaro, practised as a physician) and educated at Rome, he subsequently settled in his parental city and published the “Istoria delle pitture in Maiolica fatte in Pesaro e in luoghi circonvicini,” in 1758. To him we are indebted for the notice of the potters above alluded to, and in his work he gives us an account of the mode pursued in the manufacture, much of which however he appears to have derived from the earlier manuscript of Piccolpasso. He tells us that the large early bacili enriched with amadreperlalustre were the produce of Pesaro; and in corroboration states that many of them are painted with the coats of arms and portraits of the members of noble Pesarese families, instancing one with the arms of the “Bergnana” family then preserved in the Casa Olivieri. It has been objected that Passeri was influenced by local partiality in favour of the native city of his family, and that he ascribed to her furnaces what may in equal likelihood have been produced at Gubbio or Diruta; and the discovery of a few pieces of lustred ware, marked as the produce of the latterCastelloin the middle of the 16th century, was hailed by several critics as conclusive evidence against his assertion.
It appears to the writer that such evidence is equally unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the works in question were produced some century and a half anterior to the earliest dated piece of Diruta ware. Passeri wrote in the middle of the last century, when the art was no longer in existence and its specimens only preserved in the cabinets of the curious; but he was a man of erudition and research and probably had means of obtaining information withwhich we are unacquainted; we think therefore that as his statements have not yet been met by proofs of their incorrectness, or by counter-statements of greater weight, we are bound to accept them until additional light be thrown upon the subject. He tells us that remains of antique furnaces and ruins of a vase shop of classic times, with fragments of red and black wares and lamps marked with the letter G, were found in the locality known as the “Gabbice” where the Lanfranchi works were afterwards established in the 16th century, and where the earth is of fine quality. He traces the use of this earth in the time of the Goths, and states that it again revived under the government of the Malatesta; and that soon afterwards a mode of adorning churches was adopted by the insertion of discs of earthenware at first simply glazed with the oxide of lead, but that coloured ones were subsequently used.
The wares were made by covering the crude baked clay with a slip orengobeof white earth, the “terra di San Giovanni” from Siena, or with that of Verona, and glazing it with “marzacotto,” a mixture of oxide of lead, sand and potash. The colours, used were yellow, green, manganese black, and cobalt blue (from the “zaffara” of the Levant). During the government of the Sforza the manufacture greatly developed and was protected, for on 1st April 1486 a decree was made prohibiting the introduction of earthenwares for sale from other parts, except the jars for oil and water. This was confirmed in 1508. In 1510 a document enumerates “Maiolica” as one of the trades of Pesaro, naming also “figoli,” “vasai,” and “boccalari;” and we must bear in mind that there is good reason for believing that at that period “Maiolica” was a name technically understood as applying only to the lustred wares.
Passeri states that about 1450 the “invetriatura” or glazing had already begun to perfect itself under the Sforza, when those early pieces were produced decorated with “arabesque” borders encircling coats of arms, portraits, and ideal heads outlined withmanganese and coloured with the “madreperla” lustre, leaving the flesh white. He ascribes the improvement in the manufacture by the use of the stanniferous glaze to the discovery of the Della Robbia, and adds that, although the art of making it was known