Although the antique pottery of Modena is referred to by Pliny and by Livy, we have no exact record or marked example of wares produced there during the period of the renaissance. Modenese artists in terra-cotta worked at Ferrara, and Cristoforo da Modena was boccalaro to the duke of that territory in the sixteenth century. Piccolpasso names Modena as a place where maiolica was produced, but whether of a superior or of a more ordinary kind we are not informed. In the last century Geminiano Cozzi, of that city, was the leading maker of porcelain at Venice about 1765, but the monopoly granted to the fabrique of Sassuolo impeded the manufacture of enamelled wares elsewhere in the duchy.
At Sassuolo, a town prettily situated ten miles to the south of Modena, an establishment for the manufacture of enamelled earthenware was introduced by Gio. Andrea Ferrari in 1741. It would seem that he obtained from the duke Francesco III. the right of making ordinary white and painted maiolica, as the stanniferous enamelled wares were then universally denominated, to the exclusion of all rivals in the duchy and all importation from other parts, except during the fair held at Reggio. The work commenced in 1742, and in a few years he was joined by Gio. Maria Dallari. Their rights were from time to time renewed, and in 1756 confirmed to the extent of granting the monopoly to the family for three generations; the materials were not to be charged with import duty, and the advantages secured to the fabrique were further extended in 1761 by even excluding the foreign wares from the fair at Reggio; the manufacturers on their part being bound to supply the duchy with an abundance of good wares at moderate prices. These wares produced were various, among others finer pieces painted in the Japanese style and with flowers and gilding; groups of figures were also made, and a large export business carried on.
From a document in the Archivio della camera di commercio, it would appear that the art was introduced at Mantua about 1450, and that its workers had their statutes which were altered and amended from time to time; but we are quite unable to judge of the character of the wares produced. They were presumably of an inferior quality, for we have already seen that Isabella D’Este in 1494 procured maiolica for her own use from Ferrara, Urbino, &c., which would argue that the pottery of Mantua was inferior. In the second half of that century Schivenoglia mentions a bottega di Maioli, conducted by one Zonan Antonio Majolaro, and remains of a furnace with fragments of wares were discovered in 1864 on the riva al Lago inferiore, from whence a small plate was procured, painted with a female bust, arabesques, &c. Campori suggests that the impresa adopted by Francesco Gonzaga after the battle of Taro, namely a crucible in a fire and containing ingots of gold, may be a distinguishing mark of the Mantuan faïence even of a later period.
Our knowledge of the production of Maiolica, or rather of artistic enamelled pottery, in Venice may be said to begin with the year 1540. Previous to that date there can be little doubt that the Venetian ovens produced enamelled wares of greater or less merit, but we have no sufficient record of their character. M. Jacquemart believes that works existed at Venice as early as the second half of the fifteenth century, arguing that if the qualities of the Venetian pottery were of so high an order at that period as to induce the inventor of the celebrated bianco di Ferrara to order vases for his own pharmacy, it must have been developed and perfected from an earlier date. But signor Lazari considered that the examples of glazed tiles existent in the sacristy of the church of Sta. Elena at Venice, having the arms of the Giustiniani family and dating about 1450-80; as also those in the Lando chapel of S. Sebastiano, having a monogram and the date 1510, and other examples anterior to about 1545, were importations from Faenza or from Castel Durante; an opinion shared by the writer after a careful examination of those pavements. The woodcut, however, p. [182] represents a very fine dish which we may reasonably ascribe to Venice; of about the year 1540: now at Kensington, no. 4438.
Sir William Drake quotes a petition, dated 1664, from the guild of the “Boccaleri” of Venice, in which reference is made to previous decrees in their favour issued in the years 1455, 1472, and 1518, prohibiting the importation of foreign earthenware; and a decree of the senate in 1665 prohibiting the importation or sale in Venice of any sort of foreign earthenware by any person
not being a member of the guild, but upon the condition that that body should keep the city well supplied with “latesini,” and that shops should be kept open for its sale. From the general tenor of this petition we may reasonably infer that at the period of its presentation the potter’s art in Venice was reduced to the production of very ordinary wares. It is curious also, and perhaps confirmatory of the inferiority of Venetian artistic pottery, that an exception in the decree against importation should be made in favour of the maiolica of Valencia, which we know also to have been imported into Genoa. This ware, which had once been excellent, had greatly deteriorated in 1664. The culminating period of the excellence of Venetian pottery in respect to painting and design was probably the middle of the sixteenth century.
The earliest dated example is a deep circular dish in the writer’s collection, the centre of which is occupied by the figure of a mermaid floating on the sea, a horn in her right hand, and regarding herself in a mirror which she holds in her left; the wide border is covered with intricate and very elegant arabesque sprays of foliage with fruits and flowers, among which are birds. The whole is painted in dull pale blue on a grey enamel and heightened with white, and on the reverse is the inscription “1540 · ADI · 16 · DEL · MEXE · DEOTVBRE.” In the Brunswick museum there is a large dish, having the subject of Moses and Aaron entreating Pharaoh, with a rich border of medallions figurative of the months, &c., and the inscription “1568. Zener Domenigo da Venecia Feci in la botega al ponte sito del Andar a San Paolo.” Pieces are in various collections having for mark a C-formed fish hook, with loop at one extremity and barbed point at the other. The only name which occurs in connexion with these examples is that of one Dionigi Marini, who signs a plate having this mark twice repeated, and the date 1636. In 1753 the Bertolini obtained a decree of the senate permitting them to open a shop in Venice for the sale of their maiolica, free for ten years of all import and export duties. Notwithstanding, the manufactory had ceased before the expiration of the term of the decree in 1763, when it was annulled.
The leading characteristic of the enamelled pottery produced at Venice in the sixteenth century is a close buff-coloured body, covered by an even glaze of grey colour, produced by the ad mixture of a small portion of zaffre, and known as “smaltino.” Upon this the design was outlined and shaded in blue, of a rather low tone, the high lights being touched in with white. Engraved
