About the year 1450 the Sforzi, the Lords of Pesaro, established at the latter place Maiolica factories, and a decree, dated 1st of April, 1486, was published, granting certain privileges to the ceramists of Pesaro. The potteries of Urbino, Gubbio, and Castel-Durante were then equally famous with those of Pesaro. It is generally thought that the use of metallic lustre was first known at Pesaro; the pearly, the ruby, and the golden lustres appeared at Pesaro and Gubbio before they were known at any other Italian pottery. The early pieces are decorative dishes, or, as they are called, “bacili,” having a broad border and a deep sunk centre; at the back is a projecting circular “giretto,” pierced with two holes, which shows that they were intended to be hung up as decorative objects. Coats of arms, or other devices, occupied the centre; the border usually is simple but well designed, showing a mixture of Oriental with Gothic or Italian forms (Fig. 15). The potteries of Faenza, Forli, and Caffaggiolo are thought by some to be as early, if not earlier, in date than those of Pesaro.
Fig. 15.—Early Pesaro Dish. (S.K.M.)
In 1444 Federigo, the second Duke of Urbino, built a castellated palace at Urbino, and gathered around him men of learning and many artists, and especially encouraged the manufacture of maiolica. His son, Guidobaldi I., succeeded him in 1482, and he also was a great patron of the ceramic arts. The ware made in Italy during this time—the latter half of the fifteenth century—was known under the name of “mezza-maiolica,” this ware differing from tin-glazed or true maiolica in its glaze in its having a lead or plumbeous glaze; but in common with the true maiolica, the mezza-maiolica is also a lustred ware, having a peculiar iridescent lustre, derived from the lead used as a glaze. This lustred ware was therefore made anterior to the tin-glazed dishes and other objects, and chiefly at Pesaro and Gubbio. The lustre was obtained on a glaze of oxide of lead and glass by the use of certain metallic oxides, and the art of making it was probably learnt from the potters of the island of Majorca, where the making of the Hispano-Moresque ware was well known.
The Italian writer Passeri states that the tin-glazed ware or true maiolica was made at Pesaro in 1500, and that the process was introduced from Tuscany. A better ground for the reception of the colours used in the decoration was afforded by the new enamel, but it did not entirely supersede the manufacture of the mezza-maiolica, as a great deal of the latter ware still continued to be made of a brilliant metallic lustre at the fabriques of Pesaro and Gubbio. At Castel-Durante, Urbino, and Diruta were other famous botegas or fabriques where the lustred ware was made, but none were so celebrated as that of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio. It was at this famous botega that the best of all the golden and ruby metallic lustres were produced. The ruby lustre particularly seemed to be a monopoly of the Gubbio workshops, for it is known that many of the Italian factories sent their pieces to Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio to have the ruby and the gold lustre added as a finish to parts of the designs.
Maiolica was made at Venice in the sixteenth century, also at Forli, Diruta, Siena, Caffaggiolo, and Faenza, where much early work of great beauty in design was produced.
We shall only have space to describe a few of the most important products of Italian maiolica.
Fig. 16.—Pitcher; Caffaggiolo Maiolica. (S.K.M.)
An early method of decorating maiolica pottery is known as “sgraffitto-work,” in which the patterns are scratched or incised into the ground: this was a favourite method of executing outdoor plaster decoration in Italy. It consists in laying on a ground of coloured clay or plaster on another coating of a different colour, and while this second coating is moderately soft, the pattern or design is incised or “scratched” down to the first coating or ground, which, being of a different colour, reveals itself, and thus forms the pattern. In both, pottery and plaster decoration sgraffitto work is usually accompanied by modelling in relief, such as representations of leaves, flowers, and fruit in bas-relief bands, or medallions of figures and animals, in high relief. After the ware is incised it is glazed with a translucent lead glaze, variegated with green and yellow colouring over the white engobe (Fig. 17). The sgraffitto pottery of Italy is either of Lombardic or Venetian origin, as appears from the usual Gothic character of the designs.