Maiolica

by C. Drury E. Fortnum

CHAPTER X.

Italian Pottery; Sgraffiati, and Caffaggiolo.

Coming now to Italian pottery, we must speak first of sgraffiati, 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 the earliest 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 playing a 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 at Caffaggiolo of 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 Ducal fabrique at 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.