Fig. 64.—Druggist’s Pot.
Mezza-Maiolica.—We cannot attempt to give a history of all the potteries which sprang into being in Italy during this time; it would be both difficult and useless. Of course, we know that many existed, and must have existed even from the days of the Roman dominion. But, under the influences mentioned, they took on a new life. Not only had striking examples come to the Italians from the Moors of Majorca, but beyond question many others had reached them from time to time from the East. Common and unglazed potteries gave place to the better sorts; and a vast stride was taken when the vessel came to be protected by a glaze made with the use first of lead (plumbiferous), and then of tin (stanniferous).
The Italian writers assert that the use of lead—the plumbiferous glaze—was applied in Urbino as early as 1300. Why need we doubt it? At Pesaro it reached its perfection about 1540. The common earthen or red ware of the country was dipped into a slip or “engobe” of white clay; then it was dried or baked; then painted, and afterward covered with a thin skin of lead-glaze, which was fixed with the fire.
The colors used in decorating these pieces were few, being mostly yellows, greens, blues, and black. This lead-glaze was soft, but it had a sort of metallic, iridescent lustre, which is one of its peculiarities and beauties. It is almost useless to attempt with the engraving to express fully the characteristics of this ware; the colors we cannot give. One piece ([Fig. 65]) will serve to show the kind of design often used, which bears unquestioned testimony to its Moorish parentage.
This finer work seems to have been made about 1500 to 1550, and at Pesaro.
The True Maiolica is that which is covered with a glaze made with the oxide of tin and siliceous sand. This stanniferous glaze or enamel takes the place of the “slip” or “engobe,” and covers the potter’s clay with a clear white enamel, upon which the colors can be laid.
The avidity with which the new art was seized upon in Italy by dukes and priests, by workmen and artists, we can hardly comprehend. It would seem that the whole Italian world then rushed into every form of art and literature with an eagerness only to be explained by a desire to make good the Lost Ages—often called the “Dark Ages.”
Furnaces and potters sprang out of the ground, and almost every good town sooner or later had its “botega.” Of these we may mention as among the most noted: Urbino, Gubbio, Pesaro, Castel-Durante, Faenza, Forli, Caffagiolo, Siena, Deruta, Venice, Castelli, besides many others.