A manufacture of coarse glazed pottery rudely ornamented with figures, flowers, fruit, &c. in colour, still exists in the Trastevere, which supplies the contadini and the humbler classes of the city with pots and pans of various form and startling decoration.
CHAPTER XV.
Faenza.
That long and rather monotonous old post road the Via Æmilia (now run sidelong by the rail) which forms almost a straight line from Piacenza to Ancona, through one of the richest countries in the world, after passing the fine cities of Parma, Reggio, Modena, and Bologna, reaches Faenza and Forlì, important and early centres of the potter’s art.
Faenza is a small dull town on the site of the Roman Faventia, and of the antiquity of the ceramic industry at this site there can be no doubt, although perhaps Pesaro, Caffaggiolo, and Castel Durante may have nearly equal claims in that respect. Of its extent and importance there is equal certainty, and there is moreover great reason to believe that the French word faïence applied to this class of pottery was derived from the name of the place; although there is another claimant in the small town, under the Estrelle mountains, a short way from Cannes and Grasse, called by the very name, Faiance (Faventia), and now chef-lieu of a canton in Draguignan of the Var. Mezerai, in his Grande Histoire, tells us that this place was chiefly renowned for its Vaisselles de terre, and there would seem to be good evidence of the existence of its potteries from a very early period to the present day; but of what degree of artistic merit we are unable to decide; neither can we feel assured that the name, as applied to enamelled earthenware, was derived from the French town and not from the Italian city. In Mr. Marryat’s history of pottery and porcelain is an interesting notice on this subject, from which we quote a few words. “Faïence, Fayence, or Fayance, is the old French term, under which were comprised all descriptions of glazed earthenware, even inclusive of porcelain, and, to a certain extent, continues so, corresponding in its general use to the English word crockery. The name is commonly supposed to be derived from Faenza; but it may well be doubted whether upon any authority much to be relied upon, since neither historians nor topographers seem to have considered the matter worthy of their attention or examination. It might be useful to trace the origin of a name so frequently given by the Romans to their settlements. Besides Faenza there was a district in their colony of Barcinum (now Barcelona), and another in Andalusia, which is supposed to have been situated somewhere between Alcala, Real, and Antequera. The old word Fayence, from the Latin ‘fagus,’ a beech tree, has become almost obsolete in France. In Geneva, however, to the present day, beechwood is still sold in the timber markets as ‘de la fayence.’”
The fabrique of Faenza has been a kind of refuge, among amateurs, for pieces destitute of sufficient outward sign to mark them as of other localities; and every gaunt and early piece, strong in blue and yellow colour, has been set down as Faentine. We agree with MM. Jacquemart and Darcel in the belief that many works of Caffaggiolo have been classed as of Faenza. We are, however, not convinced that the plaque in the hôtel Cluny, the piece bearing the most ancient date hitherto discovered (if we except that at Sèvres, inscribed xxxxiiiiiiii., and supposed to read 1448), inscribed in early characters around the sacred monogram, “NICOLAUS DE RAGNOLIS AD HONOREM DEI ET SANCTI MICHAELIS FECIT FIERI ANO 1475” is rightly attributed to Caffaggiolo instead of to Faenza. Another plaque in the Sèvres collection is dated 1477, with the name and arms of NICOLAVS · ORSINI. We next arrive at the exquisite service, of which seventeen pieces are preserved in the Correr museum at Venice, one in the writer’s (from Pourtalès), and one in the South Kensington collection; we give a woodcut of the mark, with the date 1482.
The first published matter bearing upon the wares of Faenza is the passage by Garzoni in the Piazza Universale, a publication of 1485, in which he speaks of the pottery of this place as excellent for its whiteness, &c. che fa le majoliche così bianche e polite, a remark borne out by the quality of the service just referred to. In the church of St. Petronio at Bologna is a pavement of tiles covering the ground of the chapel of St. Sebastian, and without doubt laid down at the expense of Donato Vaselli, a canon of that Basilica, who about 1487 decorated that chapel at his own cost. The date upon one of these tiles is 1487, and upon others are inscriptions, in parts unfortunately imperfect from the injury or misplacement of some of the squares, but which as put together by signor Frati of that city, would read BOLOQNIESVS · BETINI · FECIT: while upon other tiles occur:—
. C . . ELIA · BE
F . . . TICIE
. ZETILA · BE
. FAVETCIE