Italian Maiolica.
About the year 1450 the Sforzi, the Lords of Pesaro, established at the latter place Maiolica factories, and a decree, dated 1st of April, 1486, was published, granting certain privileges to the ceramists of Pesaro. The potteries of Urbino, Gubbio, and Castel-Durante were then equally famous with those of Pesaro. It is generally thought that the use of metallic lustre was first known at Pesaro; the pearly, the ruby, and the golden lustres appeared at Pesaro and Gubbio before they were known at any other Italian pottery. The early pieces are decorative dishes, or, as they are called, “bacili,” having a broad border and a deep sunk centre; at the back is a projecting circular “giretto,” pierced with two holes, which shows that they were intended to be hung up as decorative objects. Coats of arms, or other devices, occupied the centre; the border usually is simple but well designed, showing a mixture of Oriental with Gothic or Italian forms (Fig. 15). The potteries of Faenza, Forli, and Caffaggiolo are thought by some to be as early, if not earlier, in date than those of Pesaro.
Fig. 15.—Early Pesaro Dish. (S.K.M.)
In 1444 Federigo, the second Duke of Urbino, built a castellated palace at Urbino, and gathered around him men of learning and many artists, and especially encouraged the manufacture of maiolica. His son, Guidobaldi I., succeeded him in 1482, and he also was a great patron of the ceramic arts. The ware made in Italy during this time—the latter half of the fifteenth century—was known under the name of “mezza-maiolica,” this ware differing from tin-glazed or true maiolica in its glaze in its having a lead or plumbeous glaze; but in common with the true maiolica, the mezza-maiolica is also a lustred ware, having a peculiar iridescent lustre, derived from the lead used as a glaze. This lustred ware was therefore made anterior to the tin-glazed dishes and other objects, and chiefly at Pesaro and Gubbio. The lustre was obtained on a glaze of oxide of lead and glass by the use of certain metallic oxides, and the art of making it was probably learnt from the potters of the island of Majorca, where the making of the Hispano-Moresque ware was well known.
The Italian writer Passeri states that the tin-glazed ware or true maiolica was made at Pesaro in 1500, and that the process was introduced from Tuscany. A better ground for the reception of the colours used in the decoration was afforded by the new enamel, but it did not entirely supersede the manufacture of the mezza-maiolica, as a great deal of the latter ware still continued to be made of a brilliant metallic lustre at the fabriques of Pesaro and Gubbio. At Castel-Durante, Urbino, and Diruta were other famous botegas or fabriques where the lustred ware was made, but none were so celebrated as that of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio. It was at this famous botega that the best of all the golden and ruby metallic lustres were produced. The ruby lustre particularly seemed to be a monopoly of the Gubbio workshops, for it is known that many of the Italian factories sent their pieces to Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio to have the ruby and the gold lustre added as a finish to parts of the designs.
Maiolica was made at Venice in the sixteenth century, also at Forli, Diruta, Siena, Caffaggiolo, and Faenza, where much early work of great beauty in design was produced.
We shall only have space to describe a few of the most important products of Italian maiolica.
Fig. 16.—Pitcher; Caffaggiolo Maiolica. (S.K.M.)
An early method of decorating maiolica pottery is known as “sgraffitto-work,” in which the patterns are scratched or incised into the ground: this was a favourite method of executing outdoor plaster decoration in Italy. It consists in laying on a ground of coloured clay or plaster on another coating of a different colour, and while this second coating is moderately soft, the pattern or design is incised or “scratched” down to the first coating or ground, which, being of a different colour, reveals itself, and thus forms the pattern. In both, pottery and plaster decoration sgraffitto work is usually accompanied by modelling in relief, such as representations of leaves, flowers, and fruit in bas-relief bands, or medallions of figures and animals, in high relief. After the ware is incised it is glazed with a translucent lead glaze, variegated with green and yellow colouring over the white engobe (Fig. 17). The sgraffitto pottery of Italy is either of Lombardic or Venetian origin, as appears from the usual Gothic character of the designs.
Fig. 17.—Sgraffitto Maiolica. (S.K.M.)
The wares of Caffaggiolo are distinguished by a purely white glaze, with masses of a rich cobalt blue used as portions of the groundwork for the ornament; sometimes green and purple are used with the blue, and at other times a bright orange yellow and a copper green or an Indian red. Caffaggiolo, Faenza, and Forli wares have much resemblance to each other. The pitcher (Fig. 16), with the arms of the Medici family, belongs probably to the Caffaggiolo school, and is a work of the early years of the sixteenth century.
Fig. 18.—Maiolica Plate; Caffaggiolo Ware. (S.K.M.)
The tazza (Fig. 19) is another example of this ware. The fine plate (Fig. 18) is thought to be a work from the same botega, and the subject is supposed to represent Raphael and the Fornarina.
The plate (Fig. 15) is an example of the mezzo-maiolica ware, and is anterior to the date 1500. The more beautiful one (Fig. 20) is a work dating from the first years of the sixteenth century, at the time when the stanniferous glaze was coming into use. Both these plates are supposed to be from the Pesaro fabriques. They may have been made as wedding presents from the bridegroom to the bride, and are portrait dishes, with an inscription on the ribbon, with the name of the bride, or some endearing motto.
These plates are known as “amatorri” pieces. The colours used in the Pesaro maiolica are yellow, green, manganese, black, and cobalt blue, and have what is known as the “madreperla” lustre, which has a beautiful changing effect in colour. The outlines are manganese, and the flesh left white in the best pieces. The finest work executed in Pesaro came from the fabrique of Lanfranco in the years 1540-45.
Fig. 19.—Plateau or Tazza; Caffaggiolo Ware.
The products of the Sienese potteries are worthy of being ranked with the best works of Pesaro and Caffaggiolo, to which they are closely allied.
There is a fine pavement of tiles in the Kensington Museum from the Petrucci Palace at Siena, dated 1509. Benedetto is the name of an artist of the Sienese school, who painted in maiolica, from whose hand most of the best Siena maiolica has come; the drug pot (Fig. 21) and the two plates (Figs. 22 and 23) are works of his. On the drug pot, tiles, and some large dishes, grotesques were very much used as ornament, and in colour, yellow, orange, and particularly black grounds, were used in the Siena production.
Fig. 20.—Pesaro Portrait Dish (about 1500). (S.K.M.)
The maiolica wares of Gubbio are the most celebrated in all Italy, as regards their richness and beauty of colouring; this, of course, was due mostly to the beautiful effects gained by the unique ruby and gold lustres used at this fabrique. The name of one man, Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, as the chief artist, is connected with the Gubbio ware. He was a native of Pavia, and came of a noble family. He finally established himself at Gubbio, where he was made a “Castellano” of that city in 1498, and enjoyed the patronage of the Dukes of Urbino. He was a modeller as well as a painter of maiolica, and is said to have executed some altar-pieces in relief before coming to Gubbio. In the Kensington Museum there is a bas-relief of St. Sebastian which is supposed on good authority to be a work of his hand; it is coloured with the gold and ruby lustres.
Fig. 21.—Drug Pot; Siena. (S.K.M.)
Fig. 22.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)
Fig. 23.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)
A circular dish or “bacile” of lustred ware (Fig. 24), with the subject of two mailed horsemen in the centre, and a border of foliated ornament, is a work of the Gubbio fabrique, but is an earlier work than the time of Mo. Giorgio.
Fig. 24.—Lustred Dish; Gubbio Ware. (S.K.M.)
The embossed vase in copper lustre (Fig. 25) is a very beautiful example of the stanniferous glaze and ruby copper lustre. The design is well adapted to show the “reflets” of the lustre by the variety of form on its embossed surfaces. This work is ascribed to the same artist who executed the previous example.
Fig. 25.—Vase in Copper-ruby Lustre; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)
The tazza (Fig. 26), with the subject, “The Stream of Life,” after Robetta, is one of Giorgio’s best figure pieces. Though not very good in figure draughtsmanship, it is excellent in colour, and is cleverly heightened with ruby lustre. This and another plaque in Kensington Museum, representing the “Three Graces” after Raphael, are amongst if not the best of Giorgio’s work: for colour and richness of lustre, and for clearness and perfection of the enamel glaze, they are the best works in Italian maiolica that we possess. The date of both is probably 1525.
Fig. 26.—The Stream of Life; Tazza by Mo. Giorgio.
A work by Giorgio is shown at Fig. 27. This is a highly decorative tazza in the best manner of Giorgio, who was very clever at this kind of design. The groundwork of this piece is blue, parts of the decoration are green, and other parts ruby, while all of the decoration is lustred. The back of this piece is covered with a yellow lead glaze, which seems to be the case with many examples of maiolica. Probably it was done for economical reasons. We close the list of illustrations of Gubbio ware with that of a dish, “Fruttiera” (Fig. 28). The design is simple and very good for showing the beauties of the ruby and gold lustres. It is embossed, and has been made from a mould, and is an unsurpassed example of the famous Gubbio lustre. Mr. Fortnum thinks that Giorgio obtained the secret of the ruby lustre from an artist that formerly worked at the Gubbio fabrique, and that he did not invent it, and also that all the similar lustred ware was produced at Gubbio, the wares of Urbino, Castel-Durante, and of other fabriques having been sent to Gubbio to get the final lustre added to them.
Fig. 27.—Tazza by Giorgio. (S.K.M.)
Another artist who executed many important works at the Gubbio botega signs his productions with the letter N. Some think that this is meant for a signature of Mo. Cencio, a son of Giorgio who succeeded his father at the fabrique. Another name that appears on some of this ware is M. Prestino. It is known that Giorgio signed his name on many pieces that were painted by other artists or by his pupils.
Fig. 28.—Embossed Fruit Dish; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)
A beautiful specimen of Castel-Durante ware is the plate (Fig. 29) with a deep centre—"tondino"—which has a border of cupids, foliage, and medallions on a dark blue ground. The centre has cupids, and the sides of the centre painted with solid white ornaments on a low white ground. It is probably the work of the artist Giovanni Maria (1508).
Fig. 29.—Castel-Durante Maiolica. (S.K.M.)
The vase (Fig. 30) is a richly decorated specimen of the same ware; the grotesque masks and arabesques are vigorously drawn, and the ornament generally is a good example of that used on the Castel-Durante ware. This vase has been used as a drug pot, and was made at the botega of Sebastiano di Marforio. Giuseppe Raffaelli in his “Memorie” (1846) says that the manufacture of glazed pottery as an art began when Monsignor Durante built a “castello” on the Metauro at Correto in the year 1284, and the names of potteries are recorded that were in existence in 1364 to 1440. The year 1490 began a period of great activity in the Castel-Durante fabriques, and we hear of many artists who were Durantine maiolica painters going to various parts of Europe and establishing works in pottery. Tesio and Gatti went to Corfu in 1530, and taught the art in the Ionian Islands; Francesco de Vasaro went to Venice, where he was eminently successful in developing the Venetian phase of maiolica; others went to Nevers and Lyons, in France, and one to Antwerp. The artist who styled himself “Francesco” of Urbino, and who also worked at Perugia, sometimes signed his works “Durantino.” Vasari, in his “Lives of the Painters,” speaks of Battista Franco of Venice, a clever painter and designer, as having been employed by the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo II., in 1540, to design subjects for the excellent ceramic painters of Castel-Durante. The death of Duke Francisco Maria II. (1631) put an end practically to the maiolica industry of the place; the trade generally then declined, and the artists were forced to emigrate.
Urbino is a city celebrated in the art and literature of Italy in the Renaissance period, and her dukes rivalled the Medici family of Florence in the patronage and encouragement of art, science, and literature. The names of the Urbino maiolica artists have been fortunately well preserved. Those of Nicola da Urbino, Guido Fontana, and his more famous son Orazio, also another son, Camillo, the versatile artists in “Majoliche istoriate”, and Francesco Xanto, may be mentioned as the most important.
Fig. 30.—Drug Pot; Castel-Durante Ware. (S.K.M.)
To the first-named artist, Nicola, is ascribed the earliest authentic works from the potteries of Urbino, the celebrated service of maiolica, painted probably between the years 1490 and 1519, for Isabella d’Este, wife of the Marquis of Mantua, and known as the Gonzaga-Este service. Two fine plates of this service are in the British Museum. They have the arms of Gonzaga impaling those of Este on a shield, and one of them has the painted subjects of Apollo and Daphne, and Apollo and the Python, while the other has a representation of a troop of horse soldiers entering a city. The figures are delicately and carefully outlined and the colouring is brilliant.
Orazio Fontana was the most celebrated of the family of that name. His best work was done from 1540 to 1560, and he was the artist proprietor of a botega at Urbino, from whence came many of the finest works ever made in that city, not only as regards their artistic qualities but in the beauty and finish of the maiolica ware. The “istoriati” panels, or figure subjects (usually mythological) which were copies or adaptations of engraved designs by Italian painters, were the work of Orazio himself, and the grotesques probably from the hand of his brother or some other artist.
The pilgrim bottle (Fig. 31) is from the botega of Orazio Fontana, but the grotesques on it are supposed to have been painted by his brother Camillo. One artist named Gironimo was very clever at this grotesque, or “Raphaelesque” work as it is sometimes called—not from the great Raphael Sanzio, but from the artist Raphael dal Colle, who introduced this grotesque design among other work of his for the decoration of the Pesaro ware, in the duchy of Urbino. These grotesques were afterwards called “Urbino arabesques” and were of a different character to the grotesques of the Gubbio ware, which may be seen by comparing the dish of Urbino ware signed by Gironimo (Fig. 32) with Fig. 27.
There is a circular dish of Urbino ware in the Museum at Kensington on which is painted the subject of the marriage of Alexander with Roxana, from an engraving by Marc Antonio Raimondi, after Raphael’s design. This work is signed by Francesco Xanto (1533), a prolific and somewhat careless artist who took great liberties with the designs he adapted, like most of the maiolica painters. The colouring of this dish is very rich: the colours generally of the Urbino school were green, yellow, and blue, and a predominance of orange on a light or white ground.
Fig. 31.—Pilgrim Bottle; Urbino Ware. (S.K.M.)
Faenza pottery is among the oldest in Italy, but little is known of the early artists or potteries. Many pieces of doubtful origin have been classed as Faentine, but without any positive proof.
In the Cluny Museum in Paris there are a pair of pharmacy jars or vases, one of which bears the inscription “Faenza,” and the other is dated 1500, their excellence proving that good work was done at Faenza at this date, or perhaps much earlier. The pottery works called the Casa Pirota was the principal establishment for the production of maiolica at Faenza.
Fig. 32.—Urbino Dish, with “Urbino Arabesques.” (S.K.M.)
Many works from this pottery are in the Kensington Museum, and they seem generally to be the work of one hand, but there is no record of the artist. He painted a certain kind of grotesque, and figures of boys on plates of a wide border. The colours are a light blue on a dark blue ground, the light blue heightened with touches of white, and shaded with a brownish yellow. This style is known as “sopra azzuro” and is very characteristic of the unknown painter’s work (Fig. 33).
Fig. 33.—Faenza Plate. (S.K.M.)
A fine tazza in the same museum by the Faentine artist who signs himself as F. R. has the painted subject “the Gathering of the Manna,” after Raphael.
Fig. 34.—Faenza Maiolica. (S.K.M.)
The colours used are strong and rich yellows, blues, greens, orange, and purple tints. This work is much superior to that of another Faentine artist who used the same initials. An oblong panel or plaque in the Kensington Collection, 9-3/4 inches in height by 8 inches in width, has a painting of the Resurrection after a design by Melozzo de Forli, signed with a monogram consisting of T and B. It is a maiolica work of the highest rank, carefully executed yet with perfect freedom of touch—for carefulness of execution in pottery painting very often implies hardness—and pleasing combinations of blues, yellows, greens, and golden browns, with little touches of red. Mr. Fortnum thinks it was painted by the same artist that executed the famous service of maiolica of which seventeen pieces are in the Museo Correr at Venice. The tazza at Fig. 34 is ascribed to the Faenza fabriques. It is as much Gothic as Italian in design, which is the case sometimes in Northern Italian art, and it has been found also that the “istoriati” maiolica of Faenza has more of its subjects from the engravings of German artists’ works, such as Dürer, Martin Schon, and others, than the pottery of any other Italian fabrique. Maiolica has been fabricated at many other places in Italy, such as Diruta, Forli, Rimini, Padua, Ferrara, Genoa, and Venice, but space prevents us here from giving any descriptive notice of them, further than the mention of the Venetian botegas where many important examples came from during the sixteenth century. The Venetian dishes of this time were covered with ingenious and elaborate designs of interlacing ornament, foliage, birds, masks, with tyings of ribbons or drapery (Fig. 35). The colour of the enamelled surface is white slightly tinted with zaffre blue. A low-toned blue colour was employed for the ornament, which was outlined and shaded with a darker blue and heightened with white.
Fig. 35.—Venetian Dish. (S.K.M.)