Maiolica

by C. Drury E. Fortnum

Many early pieces, modelled in high relief and in the round, are probably of this origin. The very fine tazza, represented in the woodcut, is a good example. They differ from parallel pieces ascribed to Caffaggiolo in a certain rigidity of modelling, the use of a shading and outline of a darker or more indigo-like blue, and a free application of yellow and orange pigments; a more gothic sentiment also prevails from the influence of the German school, and we find subjects copied or derived from the works of Dürer, Martin Schön, &c., more frequently upon the higher class of Faentine wares than on those of painters working at the more southern centres of the art. The contemporary pieces of Caffaggiolo are more Italian in sentiment, the blue pigment of greater brilliancy, a purple also used, and a thicker glaze of great richness and more tendre effect.

From an early period Faenza seems to have produced a large number of electuary pots and pharmacy bottles; a pair are in the hôtel Cluny, one bearing the name Faenza, the other 1500. Many of these vases are decorated in the style known as a quartiere, being divided into compartments, painted in bright yellow, &c., on dark blue, with foliated and other ornament, and usually having a medallion with profile head or subject on one side, under which the name of the drug in gothic lettering is inscribed on a ribbon. A curious example is in the British museum; a large flask-shaped bottle of dark blue ground with yellow leafage and with twisted handles, upon the medallion of which is represented a bear clasping a column, with the inscription “et sarrimo boni amici,” allusive, in all probability, to the reconciliation of the rival houses of Orsini and Colonna in 1517.

We would here refer to the frequent occurrence on these vases, as occasionally upon other pieces, of pharmaceutical and ecclesiastical signs, letters, &c. surmounted by the archiepiscopal cross and other emblems which we believe have reference to the uses of monastic and private pharmacies for which the services were made, and not to be confounded, as has been too frequently the case, with the marks of boteghe or of the painters of the piece. These emblems have no other value to us than the clue which they might afford to patient investigation of the locality and brotherhood of the conventual establishment to which they may have belonged, and among the archives of which may be recorded the date and the fabrique by which they were furnished. But what are of far greater interest are those admirable early pieces, painted by ceramic artists of the first rank, who, beyond a rare monogram or date, have left no record of their place or name; and whose highly-prized works, for their authors are several, are jealously guarded in our public and private museums. Some of these, with reasonable probability, are believed to have been executed at Faenza. Several examples are preserved, of an early character, perhaps the work of one hand, who marked them on the back with a large M crossed by a paraphe. They are usually plateaux with raised centre, on which is a portrait head, or shallow dishes with flat border. Variations of the letter F are found on pieces, some of which are fairly ascribable to this fabrique, but we need not point out the fact that many other localities of the manufacture can claim the same for their initial letter, and that the characteristics and technical qualities of the pieces themselves are a necessary test.

Later in the sixteenth century, when subject painting covering the whole surface of the piece was in general fashion (istoriata), the unsigned works produced at Faenza are difficult to distinguish from those of other fabriques. Some examples exist in collections, as one in the Louvre with the subject of a cavalry skirmish and inscribed 1561 in Faenca, but we have no knowledge of their painters, and even the occurrence of the name of that city is but rarely met with. Her wares are usually richly ornamented on the back with imbrication, as was the manner of Manara, or with concentric lines of blue, yellow, orange.

E. Of the pottery produced at Faenza during the seventeenth and the last century we have but little record. Some pharmacy vases are mentioned by M. Jacquemart signed “Andrea Pantales Pingit, 1616,” but the signature does not appear to be accompanied by the name of that city. In 1639 Francesco Vicchij was the proprietor of the most important fabrique.

A modern establishment professes to occupy the premises of the ancient Casa Pirota, where we have seen fairly good reproductions of the ordinary sopra azzuro plates of the old botega, but these are but weak imitations, and the glory of Faentine ceramic art must be looked for in museums.

CHAPTER XVI.

Forlì, Ferrara, etc.

The first notice we have of the pottery of Forlì is merely indirect, occurring in a document referred to by Passeri and dated as early as 1396, a passage in which speaks of John Pedrinus “formerly of the potteries of Forlì and now an inhabitant of Pesaro;” thus proving that such a manufactory did exist at the former town previous to that date; but it does not inform us whether it was more than a furnace for the production of ordinary wares. Piccolpasso refers to the painted majolica of Forlì, and there can be no doubt from the examples we still possess that at the time he wrote, in the middle of the sixteenth century, it was well known as one of the important fabriques of northern Italy.

Our next evidence is more direct, and consists of a series of examples in the South Kensington museum, the careful comparison of which has led to the conclusion that the wares produced at the botega of Maestro Jeronimo (?) at the latter end of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century were of a very high order. That numbered 7410 is the finest piece with which the writer is acquainted, part of an historical service made for Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, whose arms are emblazoned on the rim. It has hitherto been a question as to which of the early manufactories the production of this service could be attributed, but we think that there can be no hesitation, after a comparison with other pieces, in classifying it as a production of Forlì. The pretty plate no. 1803 (engraved) approaches nearer to the manner of the finer wares of Forlì than to any other fabrique with which we can connect it, and the pavement of tiles no. 30, on which occurs the date 1513, is remarkable, as shown in the next engraving, for the portrait heads introduced, one of which is that of the celebrated Melozzo; the other may perhaps be that of the artist who executed the work, and who is unquestionably the same as the painter of the Mº iero plate; from an inscription of doubtful reading it may be understood that he signs this work as “Petrus,” while the letter R, the initial of his patronymic, occurs with P at the side of what may be intended for his portrait.