Portions of a magnificent service of the best period of Orazio Fontana’s botega are dispersed in various collections, as also some pieces of equally rich quality made after the same models, but which were probably of another “credenza.” Two of the former were exhibited at the loan exhibition in 1862, by baron Anthony de Rothschild. They are large oval dishes with raised medallion centres, and having the surface, both internally and outside, divided into panels by raised strap work springing from masks, with ornamental moulded borders, &c. These panels, edged with cartouche ornament, are painted with subjects from the Spanish romance of Amadis de Gaul, and on the reverse are inscriptions in that language corresponding with the panel illustrations. The central subject is not of the same series, but represents boys shooting at a target, on one dish, and warriors fighting, upon the other. The border is painted with admirable Urbino grotesques on a brilliant white ground. The size of these pieces is 2 ft. 2 in. by 1.8½ in.
It appears that the Fontana botega was neither founded nor maintained although greatly encouraged and patronised by the duke Guidobaldo, but was solely created by the enterprise and sustained by the united industry of the family. Orazio died on the 3rd August 1571. By his will he left his wife 400 scudi, &c. and power to remain in partnership with his nephew Flaminio, with a view to the benefit of his only daughter, Virginia, who had married into the Giunta family when young. We think there is every probability that the fabrique was so continued, and that a numerous class, having the character of the wares of the botega but of inferior artistic merit and showing the general decadence of the period, may with probability be attributed to it.
On many of the grand pieces of the Fontana fabrique the work of another hand is seen, which differs from the acknowledged manner of Orazio. They are among the most decorative productions of the factory, large round dishes with grotesque borders on a white ground, shaped pieces similarly decorated, and having panels of subject executed by the artist in question; others also where the subject covers the whole surface of the dish. We have no clue to the name of this able painter, but we would venture to suggest the great probability that these were the work of Camillo, who is said to have been an artist only inferior in merit to Orazio himself. In manner they approach nearly to, and are difficult to distinguish from, the finer examples of the Lanfranchi fabrique at Pesaro; less powerful and broad than the work of Orazio, and less careful in drawing than those ascribed to Guido, they approach the former in the blending of the colours and rich soft effect of surface, while a similar mode of rendering various objects, as stones, water, trees, &c. pervades all three, with slight individual variations. A peculiar elongation of the figures, and narrowing of the knee and ankle joints are characteristics of this hand, as also a transparent golden hue to the flesh.
We are almost wholly in the dark as to the clever painters of the grotesques on a pure white ground which so charmingly decorate many of the noblest productions of Orazio’s furnace. The work of two or more hands is manifest on various pieces of the best period; one, perhaps the most able, is constantly seen on pieces, the istoriati panels or interiors of which are painted by Orazio himself or by the artist whose works we have just considered, and may, perhaps, also have been by the hand of the latter, a similar method of heightening with small strokes of red colour being observable on both. Gironimo, by whom we have a signed piece in the South Kensington museum, no. 4354, may have been another, but his manner is of a somewhat later character.
Of Nicola, jun., we know nothing; he is mentioned in his father’s wills made in 1570 and 1576; and that he was unfortunate or improvident would seem probable from the fact that in the deed of contract between Orazio and his father on the occasion of his setting up for himself in 1565 he agrees to keep and provide for Domitilla and Flaminio, children of his brother Nicola, for the space of three years.
Flaminio the nephew, son of Nicola, continued the works and was a favourite of the dukes Guidobaldo and Francesco Maria; it is said that the latter took him to Florence to teach and aid pupils studying under Bartolomeo degli Ammanati, where he remained for some years. Under the fabrique of Caffaggiolo we find pieces which may perhaps have been produced under the influence of this member of the family. In form and decoration with grotesques they are a poor reminiscence of the superior works of an earlier period.
The work of another, a later and inferior hand, probably of the Fontana fabrique, is abundant in collections; his manner is between that of the Fontana and of the Patanazzi; free and effective, but loose and careless; the Fontana pigments are used, and occasionally pieces occur painted with greater pains. Many vases with serpent handles and other shaped pieces were painted by this hand, of whose name we have no record, and it would be only guessing to suggest that Guido Fontana, junior, the son of Camillo, who died in 1605, may have been their author.
Another important artist of the Urbino fabrique was Francesco Xanto, who, like Giorgio, adopted the unusual habit of signing in various forms the greater number of the pieces which he painted. Although we cannot but appreciate the modesty, the “Lamp of Sacrifice,” which induced so many of the earlier and contemporary artists of the highest excellence to refrain from attaching their names to the works of their hands, or at the most to sign a few of their admirable productions in monogram, we must regret their having used so much reserve, and that in consequence conjecture must take so large a place in the history of this branch of artistic handicraft.
We have little other information of this painter beyond what is conveyed by the inscriptions on pieces by his hand.
His name is mentioned by Rog. Vincenzo Vanni, on the 29th March 1539, as “Franciscus Xatis fictilinus vasorum pictor egregius.” A native of Rovigo, he seems to have settled at Urbino and there produced all his works. His true name, gathered from his varied signatures, would appear to be Francesco Xanto Avelli da Rovigo, and the dates of his signed works extend from 1530 to 1542, although it is highly probable that many existing undated pieces were executed before, and perhaps after those dates. His earlier works are generally more fully signed, while many of the latter have only one or two initial letters. Works by Xanto are to be found in almost every collection of any note, and among them are examples of high artistic excellence, although very many betray want of care and hasty execution. It appears that many of his pieces were subsequently enriched with the golden and ruby lustre colour at the botega of Mº Giorgio, and Mº N at Gubbio; and, indeed, it was mainly by the observation of these, so distinctly painted and signed by Xanto at Urbino, and to which the metallic reflet had been added evidently by a subsequent process, that it was inferred that the lustre was a special enrichment applied at another fabrique to works painted elsewhere. Of Xanto’s style and merits as an artist Mr. Robinson writes: