A plate of Urbino ware about 1535.
(The arms are Cardinal Pucci's)

Much of what has been said of the fine majolica of Pesaro is applicable to that ascribed to Urbino, most of which appears to have been made in the neighbouring towns of Fermignano, Gaifa, and Castel Durante (now Urbania), the alluvial washings of the Metauro being peculiarly adapted for the purest white glaze. Yet Pungileoni has wormed out of some old notarial protocols the names of Mo. Giovanni di Donnino in 1477, and of Mo. Francesco in 1501, both designed of Gardutia, potters (figuli) at Urbino. He also establishes that coloured figures were executed there in vases in 1521. Passeri denies that those ruby and gold colours for which we shall find Gubbio celebrated, and which certainly were known in the workshops of Pesaro, ever came into use at Urbino,—a conclusion which we shall have occasion to correct. Indeed, this secret of metallic iridescence is said to have been known at Florence, and I have seen a plate of golden lustre bearing the emblem of the woolstaplers' guild [arte della lana]; but if such manufactory existed, I have found no notice of it, and the still flourishing one of Ginori in the Val d'Arno pretends to no such antiquity. I was shown at Florence a tile, on which Annibale Caracci's Galatea was represented with great accuracy of design, but poor and hard in colour, signed "Ferdinand Campani, Siena, 1736." In the latter town there is said to have been a fabric known by the name of Terchi; the analogous one, near Fermo, in the Abruzzi, called Grue, sent forth, I believe, most of those tiles, small plates, or cups and saucers,—ornamented with landscapes of tolerable design, but tinted in sickly yellow or blue, and totally devoid of style,—which abound in Lower Italy.

The prismatic glaze, especially of gold and ruby colour, was unequalled in those plates painted at Gubbio by Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, who appears to have come hither from Pavia with his brothers Salimbeni and Giovanni. His name was there enrolled among the nobility in 1498, but the dates affixed to his plates extend from 1518 to about 1537. He had previously executed several plastic works of the nature of della Robbia's figures, the principal of which was a Madonna del Rosario altar-piece for the Domenican church, which has been enthusiastically described in No. 928 of the London Athenæum. It was torn down by the French in their wonted course of rapine, and, to the disgrace of the local authorities of Gubbio, lay neglected for several years after the peace, until purchased for the Steidl Institut at Frankfort. The only other of his productions remaining at Gubbio is a life-sized statue of St. Anthony in the same church, quite inferior as regards design and religious feeling to those of the Tuscan sculptors, and which, though coloured, has no metallic lustre. He is said by Passeri to have lived until 1552; and of his family, who long occupied an honourable station in their native city, only a son, Cencio, followed his father's profession. I have seen a plate of this school at Mr. Forrest's, 54 Strand [1850], rudely signed with G; others have R, perhaps il Rovigese, whom I shall presently mention. Mo. Prestino da Gubbio wrought about 1557, but the latest date I have seen with metallic lustre and the Gubbian mark is 1549, on which the iridescence was extremely feeble.

Passeri's assertion, that the Gubbian glaze was borrowed from the half-majolica of Pesaro, may be correct; but we might, perhaps, maintain for it a date as early as 1474, on the authority of a beautiful small plate possessing its peculiarities, and exhibiting Duke Federigo's name and profile in relief, within a coloured border of oak-leaves also in relief, made, possibly, on occasion of his alliance with the della Rovere, by marriage of the Lord Prefect with his daughter in that year. This interesting memorial is No. 2286 of the Mediæval Gallery at the Louvre. In Mr. Marryat's choice cabinet is a half-ware plate, bearing on the back a monogram, which that gentleman supposes of Maestro Giorgio's early period, before he had discovered the mode of obtaining iridescent varnishes. It displays a group of nude figures in pale greyish tints, without any approach to brilliant colouring. His usual signature was dashed off with a metalliferous brush on the back, Mo. Go. da Vgubio, with the date, as at No. 11 of the same facsimiles, from a plate in my possession. Such pieces are rare, and highly prized; their subjects are usually saints, classical groups, or grotesques, vases being very seldom met with. A branch of this fabric is said to have been seated at Nocera; and several, with bright red and blue tracery on a gold metallic ground, dated 1537-8, in the choice cabinet of Signor Serafino Tordelli at Spoleto [1845], are supposed by him of that fabric. Among other exquisite specimens, he has one by Maestro Giorgio, 1529, rivalling the finest miniature, and representing Archimedes measuring a globe, in front of the Communal Palace at Gubbio.

Thus much regarding the various manufactories of majolica connected with Urbino. The forms and purposes to which it was turned were very various. The first plates of Pesaro, chiefly of great size [bacili], were probably for table use, but a variety of them, called amatorii, were either tender souvenirs or marriage gifts. These usually had the lady's portrait, with the complimentary epithet of Bella, as in this example now in my possession; at other times united hands and a transfixed heart, with a motto of affection, moralising, or banter. Several such have been described by Passeri, Marryat, and others, but I shall add a few which have come under my observation. 1. At Florence: Francesca bella a paragon di tutti, "Frances, of beauty comparable to any one." 2. At Rome: Nemo sua sorte contentus erat, "Each has something to grumble about." 3. Sir Thomas B. Hepburn; a lady holding a gigantic pink: Non è sì vago el fiore che non imbiacca o casca, "There is no flower so lovely but fades or droops." 4. Rome; a dame of rueful countenance: Sola miseria caret invidia, "Only the miserable escape envy." 5. Pesaro, Massa collection: Per dormire non si acquista, "The indolent get nothing." 6. Florence: Chi bien guida sua barcha sempre emporto, "Who steers well his bark, always makes the harbour." 7. Pesaro:—

S'il dono è picolo e di pocho valore,
Basta la fedel povere se redore.
"If small the gift and scant of merit
A poor slave's faith,—enough, you share it."[247]

MAIOLICA