A plate of Castel Durante ware of about 1524
“The divine and beautiful Lucia”
We shall not encumber our pages with conjectural or vague hints as to the processes of these interesting fabrics. Iridescent lustre obliquely reflected, and a white glaze of dazzling transparency, were the objects respectively aimed at. The former was attained by preparations of lead, copper, silver, and gold; the latter was imparted by dipping the half-baked pottery into a white varnish, over which, while moist, the subject was rapidly painted, correction or retouching being incompatible with the immediate absorption of its colours, which, apart from accidental fusion of tints, and flaws in the furnace, abundantly accounts for the frequent inaccuracy of design. The metallic lustre depended a good deal on lead, the whiteness on a free use of tin.
Those early plates of Pesaro were very rarely signed by their artists; but one in the Hague Museum bears a cipher resembling C.H.O.N., whilst another, quoted by Pungileoni, has a mark composed of G.A.T. interlaced. In 1478, Sixtus IV. wrote his acknowledgments to Costanzo Sforza for a present of "Vasa fictilia, most elegantly wrought, which, for the donor's sake, are prized as if of gold or silver rather than of earthenware."[243] In a similar letter, Lorenzo the Magnificent thanked [Roberto] Malatesta, observing that "they please me entirely by their perfections and rarity, being quite novelties in these parts, and are valued more than if of silver," the donor's arms serving daily to recall their origin.[244] Passeri gives a curious proclamation by the Lord of Pesaro, in 1486, narrating that, for good favour to the citizens, and considering a fabric of earthen vases to have been of old practised in that city, superior, by general admission, to all others produced in Italy, and that there were now more workshops than ever,—importation of any species thereof from foreign parts was prohibited, on pain of confiscation and fine, half to the informer, oil and water jars only excepted; and further that, within eight days, all foreign vases should be sent out of the state. In 1510, majolica was numbered among the trades of Pesaro, and in 1532, Duke Francesco Maria confirmed the protection for it which we have just cited. I have not met with the patent for "application of gold to Italian faience," quoted by Mr. H. Rogers as granted, in 1509, to Giacomo Lanfranco of Pesaro, by Duke Guidobaldo, who, by the way, was then dead.
It may have been soon after this date that "fine" superseded "half" ware in the potteries of Pesaro, where the art obtained a new stimulus on transference hither of the court by Duke Guidobaldo II. Thereafter it is impossible to distinguish earthenware issuing from these establishments from that of Urbino, their quality being similar, and the artists in many cases identical; but by that Prince's patronage it unquestionably attained its greatest perfection. A petition by certain makers of Pesaro for protection, is given in [X. of the Appendix], as illustrating then received principles of trade, as well as of this fabric. It bears date in 1552; and in 1569, the Duke granted to Giacomo Lanfranco, of that city, a patent for twenty-five years, guarded by 500 scudi of penalty, for his inventions in applying gold to vases, and in constructing them of great size (exceeding the capacity of two some), of antique forms, and wrought in relievo. As a further encouragement, he and his father Girolamo were exempted from every impost or tax, and from mill-dues on grinding ten some of grain annually. Proud of the reputation of his native pottery, Guidobaldo was in the habit of presenting services of majolica to foreign princes and personages, who again often sent commissions to be executed in the duchy, bearing their arms. A double service was, according to Vasari, given by him to Charles V.; and another to Philip II., painted by Orazio Fontana from Taddeo Zuccaro's designs; while Passeri mentions a set presented to Fra Andrea of Volterra, each piece inscribed G.V.V.D. [Guid Vbaldonis Urbini Ducis] Munus, F. Andreæ Volaterano. I found in the Oliveriana MSS. a letter addressed to his brother the Cardinal of Urbino, describing a buffet for Monsignor Farnese, with its inventory, which will be found at [XI. of the Appendix]. The most important, however, of the ducal commissions was a very numerous set of jars, of many sizes and shapes, for the use of his laboratory [spezeria], a fashion imitated by other dilettanti. Blue, yellow, and green are their prevailing hues; they are always labelled with the name of some drug or mixture, and occasionally have a portrait or other subject. The original set was gifted by Francesco Maria II. to the treasury of Loreto, where about three hundred and eighty of them still serve their original purpose, many duplicates being met with in collections. Specimens will be found engraved by Bartoli, and in Mr. Marryat's beautiful volume; the offers of various crowned heads to replace them by others of gold and silver, are well-known travellers' tales, but in truth they are far from choice specimens.
Like other branches of fine art, majolica-painting showed an early preference for sacred themes; but the primitive plates of Pesaro bear effigies of saints much more frequently than scripture histories, or doctrinal representations. Then came in a fashion for portraits of living or historical persons, including warriors, high-born dames, and classical heroes, inscribed with their names. These paintings are all flat and lifeless, with scarcely an attempt at relief, or graduated tints; the ornaments are rude, inclining to Moorish, and totally different from what is called arabesque. From the della Robbian influence were probably borrowed plates brimming with coloured fruits in relievo, a variety of little interest, but reminding us of similar French productions in a later period. In the sixteenth century, the mania of classicism, elsewhere discussed,[245] much affected majolica; and in its designs, although events of the Old Testament were not abandoned, saintly legends gave place to scenes from Ovid and Virgil. For behoof of the unlettered curious, the incident was shortly, often clumsily, described in blue letters on the back, with a reference to the text. In a few cases (perhaps of amatorii or nuptial gifts), I have found the very finest productions degraded by grossly indecent designs; in more numerous ones groups of nude figures disport themselves in the manner of Giulio Romano. Those in which Raffaelesque arabesques prevail, belong chiefly to the latter portion of Guidobaldo's reign. From that time the fabric decayed rapidly, owing partly to a general decline of æsthetic taste, partly to the impaired state of that Duke's finances, and the indifference of his successor. Even after historical compositions were neglected, considerable dexterity was displayed in painting trophies, arms, musical instruments, utensils, marine monsters, children, grotesques, birds, trees, flowers, fruits, and landscapes, designs of that class being easily repeated and their inaccuracies passing for studied extravagance. But the drawing got worse, the colouring more feeble, as good artists dropped off, carrying with them their sketches, and superseded by engravings from Sadeler and other Flemings, whose vile taste contributed to lower the standard of better times.[246] Public favour, ever capricious, was successfully wooed by the oriental porcelain, which now found its way among the higher ranks, while the augmented supply of silver encouraged a more extended use of plate. Thus discredited, the manufacture progressively deteriorated, until, in 1722, the stoneware of Urbania was of the most ordinary description, the efforts of Cardinal Legate Stoppani to reinstate a better fabric having totally failed; and thus neglected, the most beautiful productions of its happier time were dispersed, or passed to the meanest uses, from which another whim of fashion, as much as the revival of a better taste, has suddenly rescued them.
MAIOLICA