" : . THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. EDITED BY WILLIAM MASKELL. No, 4.-MAIOLICA. These Handbooks are reprints of the dissertations prefixed to the large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the Museum at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to bring each into a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education having determined on the publication of them, the editor trusts that they will meet the purpose intended; namely, to be useful, not alone for the collections at South Kensington but for other collec- tions, by enabling the public at a trifling cost to understand something of the history and character of the subjects treated of. The authorities referred to in each book are given in the large catalogues; -where will also be found detailed descriptions of the very numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum. W. M. August, 1875. MAIOLICA. C. DRURY E. FORTNUM, F.S.A. WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS. SIXTH THOUSAND. Published for the Committee of Council on Education BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED, it, HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. 1892. RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAV. Art Library LIST OF WOODCUTS. PACK Persian wall tile ... ... ... .. ... ... 7 Damascus plate ... ... ... ... ... ... 13 Hispano-moresque vase ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 Rhodian plate ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 16 Vase with imitative Arabic inscription ... ... ... ... 17 Fragment of Damascus vase, from Pisa ... ... ... ... 19 Siculo-moresque bowl ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Tondo by Luca della Robbia ... ... ... ... ... 25 Betrothal deep plate, Gubbio ... ... ... ... ... 30 Plateau, with portrait, Pesaro (?)... ... ... ... ... 31 Sgraffiato circular dish ... ... ... ... ... ... 33 Vase, Gubbio (?) ... _ 38 Dish or plateau, Urbino ... ... ... ... ... ... 40 Circular dish, Urbino ... ... ... ... ... ... 41 Plate, a maiolica painter ... ... ... ... ... 44 Florentine mark ... ... ... ... ... ... 48 Vases, &c., from the manuscript of Piccolpasso ... ... ... 53 Dish, with portrait ... ... ... ... ... ... 64 Ancient Persian plate ... ... ... ... ... ... 68 Rhodian shallow bowl ... ... ... ... ... ... 70 Damascus marks ... ..; ... ... ... ... 71 Plateau, Malaga (?) ... ... ... ... ... ... 78 ,, Spanish .,. ... ... ... ... ... Si vi MAJOLICA. PACK Dish, Valencia ... ... ... ... ... ... 82 Hispano moresque marks ... ... ... ... ... 83 Inscription on a vase ... ... ... ... ... ... 84 Sgraffiato bowl ... ... ... ... ... ... 87 Plateau, early Tuscan (?) ... ... ... ... ... 90 Tazza plate, Caffaggiolo ... ... ... ... ... 91 Plate, Caffaggiolo ... ... ... ... ... ... 91 Ewer, or large pitcher ... ... ... ... ... ... 93 Vase, Caffaggiolo ... ... ... ... ... ... 95 Drug-vase, Siena ... ... ... ... ... ... 97 Plate, Siena ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 98 Plate, by Maestro Benedetto ... ... ... ... ... 98 Mark of Benedetto ... ... ... ... ... ... 99 Mark on Mr. Henderson's dish .. ... ... ... ... 99 Mark on dish in Hotel Cluny ... ... ... ... ... 101 Bacile on dish, with portrait ... ... ... ... ... 105 ,, incredulity of St. Thomas ... ... ... ... ... 107 Pesaro inscription ... ... ... ... ... ... 109 Vase, Gubbio ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 112 Dish, two horsemen ... ... ... ... ... ... 113 Plaque, St. Sebastian ... ... ... ... ... ... 116 Bowl... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 117 Tazza or bowl ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 117 Deep tazza, Hercules and Antaeus ... ... ... ... 120 Plateau ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 121 Mark (probably of Giorgio) with paraphe ... ... ... ... 122 Marks on a plate in the British museum ... ... ... ... 123 Small tazra, "the stream of life" .. ... ... ... ... 124 Fac-simile of Giorgio's mark ... ... ... ... ... 125 Plate, Castel Durante ... ... ... .. ... .. 129 Vase -. ... .. ... .. ... 131 MAJOLICA. vii PAGE Mark, Castel Durante ... ... ... ... ... ... 132 Tondino ,, ,, ... ... ... ... ... ... 133 Fruttiera ,, ,, ... ... ... .. ... ... 133 Shallow basin ,, ... ... ... ... ... ... 134 Dish, with portrait of Perugino ... ... ... ... ... 135 Mark and inscription of Nicola da Urbino ... ... ... ... 139 Mark, &c. , of Guido ... ... ... ... ... ... 142 Pilgrim's bottle, Urbino ... ... ... ... ... 143 Mark of Francesco Durantino ... ... ... ... 151 Dish, with Cupids, Diruta ... ... ... ... ... 156 Fabriano mark ... ... ... ... ... ... 157 Another ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 158 Viterbo, part of a border ... ... ... ... ... 159 Inscription on a Roman vase ... ... ... ... ... 161 Mark and date on a Faenza plate... ... ... ... ... 165 Plate, Faenza ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 167 Mark on the same plate ... ... ... ... ... ... 167 Plate, Faenza ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 168 Inscription, Baldasara Manara ... ... ... ... ... 169 Monogram of F. R. ... ... ... ... .. ... 170 Tazza, Faenza ... ... ... ... ... ... .. 171 Plate, Forli ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 175 Inscription, with portrait-heads ... ... ... ... ... 176 Vase, Ferrara ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 178 Plateau, Venice ... ... ... ... ... ... 182 ,, Venice ... ... ... ... ... ... 184 Vase, uncertain fabrique ... ... ... ... ... 185 Dish, Tuscan (?) ... ... ... ... ... ... 186 MAIOLICA. CHAPTER I. Y IT is right, first, to explain that in this dissertation we shall make constant use of two or three words borrowed from foreign languages ; one is botega or bottega, implying something between a workshop and an artist's studio, which it would be difficult to express by a single English word : another is fabrique, meaning the private establishment of a master potter of that day, the idea of which cannot be so well conveyed by factory, pottery, or studio (itself an imported word), all of which are therein combined and modified. The history of pottery and its manufacture is a subject of great extent; because from a very early period of human existence, known to us only by the tangible memorials of primitive inhabi- tants, the potter's art appears to have been practised. At first the vessels were of coarse clay, rude and sun-dried or ill-baked, and occasionally ornamented with concentric and transverse scratches ; from which state they gradually developed to the exquisite forms and decoration of the Greek pottery; but it would seem that how- ever universal the production of vessels of baked clay, the art of applying to them a vitreous covering or glaze was an invention which emanated from the east, from India or Egypt, Assyria or Babylon. 2 MAIOLICA. On this point Dr. Birch, in the introduction to his erudite work on ancient pottery, says : " The desire of rendering terra-cotta less porous, and of producing vessels capable of retaining liquids, gave rise to the covering of it with a vitreous enamel or glaze. The invention of glass has hitherto been generally attributed to the Phoenicians ; but opaque glasses or enamels as old as the eighteenth dynasty, and enamelled objects as early as the fourth, have been found in Egypt. The employment of copper to pro- duce a brilliant blue coloured enamel was very early, both in Babylonia and Assyria ; but the use of tin for a white enamel, as recently discovered in the enamelled bricks and vases of Baby- lonia and Assyria, anticipated, by many centuries, the re-discovery of that process in Europe in the fifteenth century, and shows the early application of metallic oxides. This invention apparently remained for many centuries a secret among the eastern nation.* only, enamelled terra-cotta and glass forming articles of com- mercial export from Egypt and Phoenicia to every part of the Mediterranean. Among the Egyptians and Assyrians enamelling was used more frequently than glazing, and their works are conse- quently a kind of fayence, consisting of a loose frit or body, to which an enamel adheres, after only a slight fusion. After the fall of the Roman empire the art of enamelling terra-cotta disap- peared among the Arab and Moorish races, who had retained a traditional knowledge of the process. The application of a trans- parent vitreous coating or glaze over the entire surface, like the varnish of a picture, is also referable to a high antiquity, and was universally adopted, either to enhance the beauty of single colours or to promote the combination of many. Innumerable fragments and remains of glazed vases, fabricated by the Greeks and Romans, not only prove the early use of glazing, but also exhibit in the present day many of the noblest efforts of the potter's art." It is true that on the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman pottery a subdued and hardly apparent glazing was applied to the surface of the pieces, but it is so slight as to leave a barely appreciable MAJOLICA. 3 effect upon the eye, beyond that which might be produced by a mechanical polish, and so thinly laid on as almost to defy attempts at proving its nature by chemical investigation ; it is, however, supposed to have been produced by a dilute aluminous soda glass, without any trace of lead in its composition, the greater portion of which was absorbed into the substance of the piece, thereby in- creasing its hardness and leaving only a faint polish on the surface of the ware. In Egypt and the east the use of a distinct glaze (invetriatura of the Italians), covering the otherwise more porous substance of the vessel, appears to have been known and to have arrived at great perfection at a very remote period. It was in fact a superior ware, equivalent to the porcelain of our days, and from the tech- nical excellence of some of the smaller pieces has been frequently, but wrongly, so called. It will perhaps be as well, before entering further into the con- sideration of the subject, to define and arrange the objects of our attention under general heads. Pottery (Fayence, Terraglia), as distinct from porcelain, is formed of potter's clay mixed with marl of argillaceous and calcareous nature, and sand, variously proportioned, and may be classed under two divisions : Soft (Fayeiice a pate tendre), and Hard (Fay- ence a pate dure), according to the nature of the composition or the degree of heat under which it has been fired in the kiln. What is known generally in England as earthenware is soft, while stone ware, queen's ware, &c. are hard. The characteristics of tht soft wares are a paste, or body, which may be scratched with a knife or file, and fusibility, generally, at the heat of a porcelain furnace. These soft wares may be again divided into four subdivisions : unglazed, lustrous, glazed, and enamelled. Among the three first of these subdivisions may be arranged almost all the ancient pottery of Egypt, Greece, Etruria, and Rome ; as also the larger portion of that in general use among all nations during mediaeval 4 MAJOLICA. and modern times. We shall be occupied with the glazed and enamelled wares : the first of which may be again divided into siliceous or glass glazed, and plumbeous or lead glazed. In these subdivisions the foundation is in all cases the same. The mixed clay or " paste " or " body " (varied in composition according to the nature of the glaze to be superimposed) is formed by the hand, or on the wheel, or impressed into moulds ; then slowly dried and baked in a furnace or stove, after which, on cool- ing, it is in a state to receive the glaze. This is prepared by fusing sand or other siliceous material with potash or soda to form a translucent glass, the composition, in the main, of the glaze upon siliceous wares. The addition of a varying but considerable quantity of the oxide of lead, by which it is rendered more easily fusible but still translucent, constitutes the glaze of plumbeous wares : and the further addition of the oxide of tin produces an enamel of an opaque white of great purity, which is the character- istic glazing of stanniferous or tin-glazed wares. In every case the vitreous substance is reduced to the finest powder by mechani- cal and other means, being milled with water to the consistency of cream ; into this the dry and absorbent baked piece is dipped and withdrawn, leaving a coating of the material of the bath adhering to its surface. A second firing, when quite dry, fuses this coating into a glazed surface on the piece, rendering it lustrous and im- permeable to liquids. The two former of these glazes may be variously coloured by the admixture of metallic oxides, as copper for green, iron for yellow, &c. ; but they are nevertheless translu- cent, and show the natural colour of the baked clay beneath. VITREOUS OR GLASS-GLAZED WARES. The vitreous, silico-alcaline or glass-glazed wares, were of very ancient date and in all probability had their origin in the east, in Egypt, or India, or Phoenicia; indeed the discovery of glass, which has always been attributed to the latter country, would soon direct the potter's attention to a mode of covering his porous vessel of baked earth with a coating of the new material ; but the ordinary MA IO LIC A. 5 baked clay would not take or hold the glaze, which rose in bubbles and scaled off, refusing to adhere to the surface, and it became necessary to form the pieces of a mixed material, consist- ing of much siliceous sand, some aluminous earth, and probably a small portion of alcali, thus rendering it of a nature approximat- ing to that of the glaze, and to which the latter firmly adhered. In some instances, on the finer examples which may probably have been exposed to a higher temperature in the oven, the glaze and the body of the piece have become so incorporated as to pro- duce a semi-translucent substance, analogous to some artificial porcelains. In its nature this glaze is translucent, and accordingly we find that when ornamented with designs, they are executed directly on the " biscuit " or unglazed surface of the piece, which then receives its vitreous covering through which they are appa- rent. By means of an oxide of copper the exquisite turquoise blue of ancient Egypt, " scarcely rivalled after thirty centuries of human experience," was produced. The green colour was, perhaps, given by means of another oxide of the same metal ; violet by manganese or gold, yellow by silver or perhaps by iron, and the rarer red perhaps by the protoxide of copper. We also find that bricks and vases of similar glazing, brought to its greatest perfec- tion in Egypt, were made by the Babylonians and Assyrians. Throughout Babylonia the sites of ancient buildings afford frag- ments of glazed pottery. The glaze of those brought from Borsippa by the abbe Beauchamp, in 1790, was analysed and found to con- tain neither the oxides of lead nor tin, but to be an alcaline silicate with alumina, coloured by metallic oxides. A more recent analysis of Assyrian examples shows that with a base of silicate of soda or soda glass and oxide of tin the opaque white has been produced, being the earliest recorded example of "enamelled'"' ware. A small quantity of oxide of lead was also found in the blue glaze on tiles from Babylonia. At Warka, probably the ancient Ur of the Chaldees, Mr. Loftus discovered numerous coffins or sarco- phagi, piled one upon another to the height of forty-five feet, o/ 6 MAIOLICA. peculiar form, and made of terra-cotta glazed with a siliceous glaze of bluish-green colour. They are formed somewhat like a shoe, an opening being left at the upper and wider end for the insertion of the body, and closed by an oval lid which, as well as the upper part of the coffin, is ornamented with figures and plants in relief. They are supposed to be of the Sassanian period. The metallic lustre in decoration was applied, apparently at an early time, to pottery glazed with a siliceous coating, and appears to have established itself in Persia. On specimens from Arabia it is also found, and its use in combination with this glaze may possibly have preceded the manufacture of lustred wares coated with the stanniferous enamel, by the eastern potters of the Balearic islands, Spain, and Sicily. In northern India, at Sind, and in Persia, wares are made at the present day of precisely the same character as the ancient pottery under consideration. Pieces from the former locality, which were exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1871, are composed of a sandy argillaceous frit, ornamented with pattern in cobalt blue beneath a siliceous glaze. Indeed their agreement in technical character with some of the pottery of the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians, and with that produced in Syria and Persia during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six- teenth centuries, is most remarkable. Persia also now produces inferior wares of the same class, specimens of which, as well as some of those from India, are preserved in the South Kensington museum : the engraving on the opposite page represents a wall tile (no. 623) of the seventeenth century. We thus see how widely spread, and at how early a period, the use of this most ancient mode of glazing was established and brought to perfection. It was the parent of all those wares now known as Persian, Damascus, Rhodian, or Lindus. PLUMBEOUS, OR LEAD GLAZED WARES. The silico-plumbeous or lead-glazed wares were for many ages and still are the most common, and, in Europe, the most widelv MAJOLICA. 7 spread class of pottery : indeed, throughout the northern and western countries lead, in combination with glass, seems to have teen the earliest and until the fifteenth centuiy the only means known of glazing soft pottery. We have seen that a certain amount of lead has been fount* H MAIOLICA. m some of the blue coloured glazes of Babylonia, and (says Dr. Percy) "probably employed as a flux;" if so, this might have been the spring of its general adoption for the purpose of pro- ducing a more easily fusible and therefore a more ready and more manageable coating ; but in the east it does not seem to have supplanted the more elegant and purer siliceous glaze. Fragments of Grseco-Roman pottery from Tarsus, lamps from the neighbourhood of Naples, and other examples of a highly glazed pottery from various antique sites which have all the appearance of a plumbeous composition, are preserved in many collections, as at the Louvre, Naples, the British museum, &c. The paste of which these examples are formed is to all appear- ance an ordinary potter's clay, generally of a buff colour, and in no way similar in character to that of the Egyptian or Assyrian wares, glazed with a true glass. The adhesion of the vitreous coating to the surface, and its perfect adaptability to the irregularities of the shaped and moulded pieces, prove its affinity for the paste of which they are made, and indirectly that its composition is not the same as that of the Egyptian or Assyrian glaze. It is worthy of remark that nearly all these specimens are found in the south of Europe, examples rarely occurring even at Rome; and, indeed, it is not improbable that the use of this glaze had hardly been adopted by the artistic potters before their art, together with all others, had degenerated under the Lower Empire. The superabundance of the precious metals and other rich material, more appreciated by the powerful than the priceless treasures which art had formed from common clay, and which had been the delight of a more refined state of society, led finally to a total neglect of the higher branches of ceramic manufacture. It is not unlikely that plumbeous glaze may have been intro- duced by Greek or oriental potters into southern Italy. We learn from the monk Theophilus that the art of decorating fictile MAIOLICA. 9 vessels with vitreous colours was practised by the Byzantine Greeks, who would have carried it there. This statement, in all probability, refers to the lead glazed wares and not to the tin enamel, the former of which, as we have seen, was known earlier than his time to the potters of Tarsus, Pompeii, &c., and it is reasonable to believe that the art may have been preserved in Byzantium when lost, or nearly lost, in Italy. Perhaps, in combination with incised ornament the use of this glaze never ceased in that country from the eighth and ninth centuries until the introduction or discovery of the stanniferous enamel in the fifteenth century ; and we find that the earliest glazed wares of that country, the sgraffiati, the painted, and the mezza maiolica wares, are covered with this description of vitreous surface. In the eleventh century churches built in various places were decorated with discs and " ciotole " of glazed and painted terra- cotta. The researches of the abbe Cochet at Bouteilles have shown that glazed pottery was in use in the north of France in the Anglo-norman period of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, or perhaps even in earlier time. Examples of glazed and painted tiles of the fourteenth century are preserved in the British museum. As before stated, this glaze is composed of silica with varying proportions of potash or soda and of oxide of lead, by which addition it is rendered more easily fusible but remains transparent. To obtain a white surface was, however, desirable, the colour of the paste beneath the glaze being generally of a dull red or buff and ill-adapted as a ground for the display of coloured ornamentation. To supply this want, before the invention of the tin enamel, an intervening process was adopted. A white argillaceous earth of the nature of pipeclay was purified and milled with water, and thus applied over the coarser surface of the piece in the same manner as the glaze; again dried, or slightly fixed by fire, it was ready to receive the translucent cout through which the white " slip " or " engobe " became io MAJOLICA. apparent. It is easy to conceive that by scratching a design or pattern through this white applied surface to the darker clay beneath, before fixing in the fire, a ready mode of decoration presented itself without the use of colour, to be covered with but visible through the glaze ; hence the early incised or " sgraffiato " ware, one of the primitive modes of decorating glazed pottery. Passeri states that pottery works existed from remote periods in the neighbourhood of Pesaro, as proved by remains of fur- naces and fragments of Roman time and tiles with the stamp of Theodoric; that during the dark ages the manufacture was neglected, but that it revived after 1300, and that it then became the fashion in that city to adorn the church towers and facades with discs and " bacini " of coloured and glazed earthenware ; .a practice which had been in use at Pisa and other cities as early as the eleventh century. The origin of this custom has been much discussed ; and the reader will find an account of it in the introduction to the detailed catalogue of Maiolica in the South Kensington collection. Occasionally, or rather frequently, circular and square slabs of porphyry and serpentine were used on the same building, concurrently with the glazed earthenware, as on the tower of Sta. Maria Maggiore at Rome ; and, indeed, this mode of enrichment attached to the architecture of the nth, 1 2th, and i3th centuries is in accordance with that pro- duced by the enamelled discs and inlaid stones on processional crosses and church plate of the same period. The only instance, observed by the writer, of the occurrence of these " bacini " of glazed ware in domestic architecture is seen over the windows of the palazzo Fava in Bologna. This style of decoration ceased entirely during the course of the fourteenth century. Passeri instances the use of glaze on tiles upon a tomb in Bologna, opposite the church of S. Domenico, dated about noo ; and he further states, but we know not upon what authority, that MAIOLICA. 1 1 it was about the year 1300 that the method of covering the clay with a " slip " or " engobe " of white earth, or the coarser earth of Verona, was first adopted. Slightly baked, it was glazed with " marzacotto " (oxide of lead and glass), applied wet and again fired ; and this glaze was variously coloured yellow, green, black, and blue, by iron, copper, manganese, and cobalt. A similar method of coating the rough and porous baked clay seems to have been known also at a very early period in the north of Europe, and to have been in use throughout France, Germany, and England. CHAPTER II. ENAMELLED OR STANNIFEROUS GLAZED WARES. IT was found that by the addition of a certain portion of the oxide of tin to the composition of glass and oxide of lead the character of the glaze entirely alters. Instead of being translucent it becomes, on fusion, an opaque and beautifully white enamel, the intervening process of covering the surface of the clay with a stratum of white earth before glazing being unnecessary. It, moreover, was found to afford a better ground for the application of coloured ornament. The process of application was the same as for the " slip ; " after immersion in the enamel bath, and sub- sequent drying, the painting is applied upon the absorbent surface ; the piece being then subjected to the fire which, at one applica- tion, fixes the colours and liquifies the glaze. This " enamelled " pottery (emaillee) is by far the more important group of the glazed wares, being susceptible of decoration by the lustre pigments, as well as by painting in colours of great delicacy ; and it comprises the Hispano-moresque, the real Maiolica, and the perfected earthen- ware of Italy and other countries. It is true that the first trace of the application of oxide of tin to produce a white opaque glazed surface is to be met with upor Babylonian or Assyrian bricks, but we are disposed to think that it was then merely used as a pigment to produce a white colour, and not as an application to pottery for the production of a white opaque glaze capable of receiving coloured enrichment by painting in other pigments. A corroboration of this opinion would seem to exist in the fact that throughout Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, and MAIOLICA. 13 Egypt, a purely stanniferous glaze on pottery has never been generally adopted, or taken the place of that simple and beautiful siliceous coating, so dexterously applied and with such richness of effect upon the Persian and Damascus earthenware. Engraved is an example of an early Damascus plate (no. 6590), at South Kensington. Perhaps isolated and lying dormant in remote localities for centuries, its use may have been learned by the Arabs, for its next appearance is upon fragments of tiling appa- rently of their manufacture or fashioned under their influence. How the knowledge of this enamel travelled, when and where it was first used, and to what extent applied, is still doubtful. We meet with an occasional fragment generally upon mural decora- tion of uncertain date on various Arab sites, till at length it U MAJOLICA. becomes palpably appreciable in the Moorish potteries of Spain and of the Balearic islands. The baron J. Ch. Davillier, in his excellent work on pottery, states that he has not been able to discover any piece which could reasonably be ascribed to a date anterior to the fourteenth century, some two hundred years after the expulsion of the Saracens from Spain. In Valencia, however, anterior to its conquest by Jayme I. of Arragon in 1239, potteries had been long established, and were of such importance that that monarch felt himself bound to protect the Moorish potters of Xativa (San Filippo) by a special edict. We must bear in mind that there were two periods of Mahom- medan sway in Spain, the first on the expulsion of the Gothic monarchy by the Arabs and the establishment of the Caliphate at Cordova, in the eighth century. Of the ceramic productions of this early period we have no accurate knowledge, but we should expect to find them of similar character to the siliceous glazed wares prevalent in the east. The second period is after an interval of five centuries, in 1235, when the Moors founded the kingdom of Granada, having driven out the Arabs. Then first appear the wares usually known as Hispano-moresque,. like the fine vase (engraved) no. 8968, at South Kensington ; for we find the tiles of the Alhambra dating about 1300, the Alhambra vase about 1320, and continuous abundant examples of tin glazed wares of Moorish origin, until the period of the conquest of the country by Ferdinand and Isabella; after which the pottery becomes more purely Spanish and speedily de- clines. Mr. Marryat remarks, in reference to the second or Moorish period, that the art of the new invaders had the same origin as the old, but as we have no specimens known to have been of the earlier or Arabian period we cannot accept this verdict as con- clusive. Moreover, some confusion has arisen in classing together the glass glazed or siliceous pottery, with or without metallic lustre, and the Moresque wares , produced in Spain, which are so MAIOLICA. 15. distinctly characteristic as being enamelled with the oxide of tin. We particularly refer to those somewhat rare examples of early siliceous pottery, like the deep Rhodian plate next engraved, some 1 6 MAJOLICA. enriched with metallic lustre, others without, the designs upon all of which are eminently Arabian or Saracenic, unreadable mock Arabic inscriptions occurring (as in the textile fabrics of the same period) among the ornaments; as in the thirteenth century vase in the woodcut, p. i 7. Such are the tiles of early date from various places in Persia and Arabia. Similar wares, ot which there are specimens at South Kensington, are supposed to have been made by oriental potters in Sicily but it is difficult to say at what time. That island was conquered by the Saracens in 827. Again, there is another variety of pottery of Moresque character and ornamentation with vermicular pattern in copper lustre on a seemingly stanniferous glaze, which is ascribed to Moorish potters MA IO LIC A. 17 wno went to Sicily and established works at Calata Girone in the fourteenth century. It is not improbable that the existence in Spain of tin ores in considerable abundance may have accidentally led to the discovery or to the adoption of the stanniferous enamel, obtained by an admixture of the oxide of that metal with glass and oxide of lead. We have no positive proof of its use on pottery at an earlier date in any other country, since the period of the Babylonian bricks 1 3 MAW LIC A. May there not be some truth in the story of the Majorcan dishes built into the Pisan towers, and that the single specimen of " Persian" ware found by the writer on the church of Sta, Cecilia in that city, which in all probability was placed there early in the twelfth century, may be one of the dishes brought home by the Pisans, at a time anterior to the use of the tin enamel in Majorca? There is generally a foundation for fabulous stories, and it is not unlikely that some few of those trophies were so applied ; the more so as the taste for such architectural decoration prevailed at that period. At the same time there can be no doubt that many of the bacini adorning churches in various parts of Italy, including Pisa, were of native Italian manufacture, as would seem probable from their compositions and designs. Engravings of these, and of the fragment of oriental ware above alluded to, are published in the Archaeologia, vol. xlii. We are indebted to the council of the Society of antiquaries for permission (see next page) to use the latter block. The earliest traces of the use of stanniferous enamel glaze in Europe, known to us, is always in connection with a decoration, produced by the reduction of certain metallic salts in the reverber- atory furnace, leaving a thin film upon the surface, which gives that beautiful and rich effect known as reflet metallique, nacre, cangianle, rubino, reverberate, &c., and in England as lustred ware. In Italy the use of a metallic lustre was apparently known and practised previous to the introduction of the tin enamel, for we have abundant examples of early " mezza-maiolica " from the potteries of Pesaro or Gubbio, glazed only with the oxide of lead and glass, and which are brilliantly lustred with the metallic colours. None of these can, however, be referred to an earlier date than the latter half of the fifteenth century. Of whom, then, did the Italian potters learn this art ? We have no answer to the question in any historical record, and we are forced to infer that the name by which this lustred ware was known at the time and in the country of its production, reflected that of MAIOLICA the place from which it was derived. Accordingly we find that the coarser lead glazed lustred ware was known as " mezza- maiolica," while that more nearly resembling its original, by the use of the tin enamel, was known as " maiolica." That the Moorish potters of Majorca conveyed this knowledge, and that the Italians named their ware after that of the island, would seem a reasonable conclusion. M. Jacque- mart, however, thinks it equally probable that although the Majorcan wares were well known in Italy, this art may really have been com- municated by Persian potters, or their pupils, coming to the eastern ports of Italy ; and that the style of decoration on the early Italian lustred wares is more Persian than Moresque. This would also in some measure explain why the lustrous colours were used at some potteries anterior to the adop- c 2 20 MAIOLICA. tion of the stanniferous enamel. The woodcut represents a bowl at South Kensington, no. 503, possibly of this manufacture, and of great rarity. In date it is somewhat late ; about 1490. The general term " Maiolica," also spelt " Majolica," has long been and is still erroneously applied to all varieties of glazed earthenware of Italian origin. We have seen that it was not so originally but that the term was restricted to the lustred wares, which resemble in that respect those of the island from which they had long been imported into Italy. It is a curious fact, proving their estimation in that country, that nearly all the specimens of Hispano-moresque pottery which adorn our cabinets and enrich our museums have been procured in Italy ; comparatively few nieces having been found in Spain. Scaliger states in reference to the Italian pottery as comparable with the porcelain of China, that the former derived its name from Majorca, of which the wares are most excellent. Fabio Ferrari also, in his work upon the origin of the Italian language, states his belief "that the use of majolica, as well as the name, came from Majorca, which the ancient Tuscan writers called Maiolica." Thus Dante writes : " Tra 1' isola cli Cipri e Maiolica ; " showing the MAJOLICA. 21 then mode of spelling the name of the island, and it would seem but natural to distinguish an imitation of its produce as " k la Maiolica." The " mezza-maiolica " was the coarser ware, formed of potter's earth, covered with a white " slip " upon which the subject was painted; then glazed with the common " marza-cotto " or lead glaze, over which the lustre pigments were applied. The " maiolica," on the other hand, was the tin enamelled ware similarly lustred. As before stated, these terms were originally used with reference only to the lustred wares, but towards the middle of the sixteenth century they seem to have been generally applied to the glazed earthenware of Italy. We think with M. Jacquemart, M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, and others, that the word maiolica should be again restricted to the lustred wares, although in Italy and elsewhere it is habitually used to designate all the numerous varieties of glazed earthenware, with the ex- ception of the more common "terraglia" and in distinction from porcelain. The Germans ascribe the discovery of the tin enamel glazing to a potter of Schelestadt, in Alsace, whose name is unknown but who died in the year 1283; and in the convent of St. Paul at Leipzic is a frieze of large glazed tiles, with heads in relief, the date of which is stated to be 1207. The potters' art is said to have developed itself in that country at an earlier period than in Italy; rilievo architectural decorations, monuments with figures in high relief, and other works of great artistic merit having been executed in 1230 at Breslau, Avhere there is a monument to Henry IV. of Silesia who died in 1290, an important work in this material. Later, at Nuremberg, the elder Veit Hirschvogel was born in 1441, and by him the use of the tin glaze was known. Specimens ascribed to his hand and dating from 1470 are preserved in museums. At Strehla a pulpit of glazed terra-cotta is of the date 1565, and at Saltzburg is the wonderful chimney-piece of the fifteenth century, still in its original position in the Schloss. 22 MAIOLICA. At that time, also, Hans Kraut, of Villengen in Swabia, produced good works, but it is probable that many of these larger examples are covered with an admirably manipulated green or brown glaze which is produced without the admixture of tin. In Italy history has always awarded the honour of its discovery to Luca della Robbia, whose first great work was executed in 1438 ; and however recent observation may lead to the assumption that its use was known in the Italian potteries before his time, there can be no doubt that his was not merely an application of a well-known process to a new purpose, but that he really did invent an enamel of peculiar whiteness and excellence, better adapted to his purpose and of somewhat different composition from that in use at any of the potteries of his time. CHAPTER III. WE have already seen that in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries native wares were produced in various places, some of which still exist in the towers and fagades of churches, and of a palace at Bologna. These are lead glazed, rudely painted or with single colours, and in some instances "sgraffiato" proving that the use of a white " slip," or " engobe " was known in Italy at that period, as affirmed by Passeri, who further asserts that in 1300 the art assumed a more decorative character, under the then lords of Pesaro, the Malatestas. Having thus attained an even opaque white surface the development of its artistic decoration steadily advanced. The colours used were yellow, green, blue, and black, to which we may add a dull brownish red, noticed on some of the Pisan "bacini." Passeri states that the reflection of the sun's rays from the concave surfaces of these " bacini " at Pesaro was most brilliant, and hence it has been wrongly inferred that they were enriched with metallic lustre. We believe that this effect may arise from iridescence on the surface of the soft lead glaze, easily decomposed by the action ot the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of the sea. Pieces exist, of considerable merit, which may be ascribed to an earlier period than that on which we find the earliest date. A votive plaque preserved in the museum of the hotel Cluny, at Paris, has the sacred monogram surrounded by the legend i/iicolabs * tie * Magnolia ' ati fjonorem tiet * et * Sanctt fBicfjaeliS * ferft * fieri * and * 1475- w have always considered this plaque as of Faenza. but it would seem that MM. Tacauemart 24 MAJOLICA. and Darcel are disposed to ascribe it to Caffaggiolo. The next example, two years later in sequence of date, is in the possession of Mr. Cook ; it represents the Virgin seated on a throne in an architectural framing, and holding the Child ; it has all the charac- teristics of a Tuscan origin and the glaze appears to be stannife- rous. We next have the Faenza plate in the Correr museum at Venice, dated 1482, followed by the plaque ascribed to Forli, 1489, and one of Faenza, 1491. Other pieces, dated 1486 and 1487, are in other collections. But we have no record or dated example of Italian pottery, coated with the stanniferous enamel, previous to the first important production by Luca della Robbia in 1438. M. Jacquemart is of opinion that the use of the tin enamel was known on pottery in Italy previous to its application to sculpture by that artist, and in this opinion Mr. Robinson agrees ; yet it is remarkable that no record of such knowledge has descended to us. No enamelled product of the early fabriques of Faenza or Caffaggiolo bears an earlier date, nor of that of Pesaro where decoration by means of the lustre pigments is believed to have preceded their application on enamelled wares ; whereas the use of the tin enamel by Luca on flat painted surfaces is proved by the tondo on the church of Or San Michele, the lunette over a door at the Opera del Duomo, and the tiles on the tomb ot Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, now in the church of S. Francesco de Paolo beiow Bellosguardo, as Florentine evidences ; and the twelve circular discs, on which are painted allegorical figures of the twelve months, are also to be referred to at South Kensington. Mr. J. C. Robinson, in his catalogue of Italian sculpture, has given a notice of the life and works of Luca della Robbia and his family, and a description of the specimens ascribed to them and possessed by the museum at South Kensington ; the majority of these rank as works of sculpture, but among the rest are the tondi, here mentioned, a wood-cut from one of which we introduce. They MAIOLICA. 25 are, in fact, circular plaques of enamelled pottery painted on the plain surface with allegorical representations of the months, in all probability by the hand of Luca della Robbia himself. We quote Mr. Robinson's description of them from page 59 of that catalogue : "Nos. 7632-7643. Luca della Robbia. A series of twelve circular medallions, in enamelled terra-cotta, painted in chiaroscuro, with impersonations of the twelve months. Diameter of each, i foot ioi inches. Vasari tells us that ' Luca sought to invent a method of painting figures and historical representations on flat surfaces of terra-cotta, which, being executed in vitrified enamels, would secure them an endless duration ; of this he made an 26 MAJOLICA. experiment on a medallion, which is above the tabernacle of the four saints on the exterior of Or San Michele, on the plane sur- face of which he delineated the instruments and emblems of the builder's arts, accompanied with beautiful ornaments. For the bishop of Fiesole, in the church of San Brancazio, he also made a marble tomb on which are the recumbent effigy of the bishop and three other half-length figures besides, and in the pilasters of that work he fainted, on the flat, certain festoons and clusters of fruit and foliage so skilfully and naturally, that, were they even painted in oil on panel, they could not be more beautifully or forcibly rendered.' We have here a record of the fact that Luca, simul- taneously with his enamelled terra-cotta sculptures, also practised painiing in the same vehicle on the flat, or, in other words, the art of majolica painting. The monumental works before mentioned are now extant to attest the truth of this account. " From a careful and repeated study of the above-named works on the spot, and likewise from the internal evidence of the technical qualities of the vehicle, terra-cotta, enamel pigments, &c., the writer has now to add to the list of Luca's productions, in this especially interesting branch, the present series of medallions, doubtless united originally in a grand decorative work. Each roundel is a massive disc of terra-cotta, of a single piece, evidently prepared to be built into a wall (or vaulted ceiling) of some edifice. Round the margin of each is a decorated moulding, in relief, of a characteristic Delia Robbia type. The surface within the narrow border is flat or plane, and the designs are painted in two or three grisaille tints on a blue ground, of the usual quiet sober tint affected in all the backgrounds and plane surfaces of the relievo subjects. These consist of single figures of contadini or husband- men, impersonating the agricultural operations of the Florentine country, characteristic of each month of the year ; and although invested with a certain artistic charm of expression, the various figures, each of which exhibits a different individual character, may be taken as life portraits of the sturdy Tuscan peasants of MAIOLICA. 27 the day. A band or fascia forming an inner border round each subject, is ingeniously and fancifully divided into two unequal halves, one being of a lighter tint than the general ground of the composition, and the other half darker, thus indicating the night and the day ; the mean duration of each for every month, being accurately computed, set off on the band accordingly, and noted in written characters on the upper or daylight part, whilst the name of the month is written in large capital letters at the bottom in white, on the dark ground of the nocturnal portion. The sun pouring down a cone of yellow rays, accompanied by the sign of the zodiac proper to each month, is also seen on the left of the upper part of each margin, and the moon on the lower half opposite to him.'' The author gives further proof that these medallions are the work of Luca della Robbia, believing the fact to be as certain as anything not absolutely authenticated can be. Luca della Robbia was born about the year 1400, and his name must ever be associated with the discovery or adaptation on a large scale, and improvement in composition, of stanniferous enamel. That the nature of this enamel is different from what was used upon other pottery of the time may be seen by a com- parison of the two surfaces. The greater degree of opacity and solidity in the former is a marked variation from that in general use ; so with the surface of his painted tiles. Perhaps the earlier productions of the Caffaggiolo furnaces approach the nearest to it. There is no piece, seemingly, of the production of a Florentine or Tuscan pottery with a date before 1477, and this example would appear to be tin-glazed. With that exception, the first pieces sur- faced with the stanniferous enamel are ascribed to the Caffaggiolo pottery and are dated 1507 and 1509, some seventy years subse- quent to its first recorded use by Luca della Robbia ; and we have no specimens which can with any probability be ascribed to a period within a quarter of a century of its habitual application by him. We cannot, therefore, find the slightest evidence to dis- 2 8 MAJOLICA. prove the assertion of Vasari and others that Luca was the dis- coverer, for Italy, of this important improvement in the glazing of earthenware vessels. It is not, however, unreasonable to suppose that its composition may have been communicated to him by one of the Moorish potters from Spain, and that, acting upon this communication, he made a series of experiments resulting in the perfection to which he attained, and which result was guarded as a family secret by two succeeding generations. A modification of this composition, perhaps also learnt from Hispano-moorish potters, became gradually known and adopted at various fabriques, spreading throughout the potteries of Italy, France, &c. We are inclined to M. Jacquemart's opinion that it first came into use at Caffaggiolo, the fabrique established under the influence of the Medici family, but cannot consent to his suggestion that Luca learnt there the composition of the enamel. We agree with Mr. Robinson in giving the precedence, or at any rate an equality in point of age, to Faenza, and in ascribing to that place certain figures and groups in alto-rilievo, bearing in- scriptions in Gothic letters, the modelling and design of which are more characteristic of the north of the Apennines than of the Tuscan valley. Andrea della Robbia, to whom his uncle's mantle descended, also painted occasionally on plane surfaces, as may be seen on tiles which cover the flat surface of a " lavabo" in the sacristy of the church of Sta. Maria Novella, in Florence. We would merely further note the fact that in 1520 the art was in decadence under the hand of Giovanni the son of Andrea, Luca's nephew, and that during the first quarter of that century various imitators produced inferior works in the same style, copying the models of the Delia Robbia and the works of some other sculptors. By Giovanni's brother Girolamo it was introduced into France, where the chateau de Madrid was decorated by him under the patronage of Francis the first. In Italy, Agostino di Antonio di Duccio, said to be a pupil of MAIOLICA. 29 Luca, worked at Perugia in 1459-61, where he executed enamelled bas-reliefs on the faade of the church of S. Bernardino, and in S. Domenico. Pier Paolo di Agapito da Sassoferrato is said t& have erected an altar in this manner in the church of the Cappu- cini in Arceria, in the diocese of Sinigaglia, in the year 1513. He was also a painter. An able modeller as well as artist potter Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, of Gubbio, also appears to have exe- cuted works in the manner of the Delia Robbia. The practice of enamelling large works modelled in terra-cotta would seem to have gone out of repute before the end of the first half of the sixteenth century ; not perhaps so much from the secret of the glaze being known only, as we are told, to the descendants of the Delia Robbia family, as from the want of demand for works in that material. From the increased use of decorative tiles and the encourage- ment afforded to the production of artistic pottery, furnaces and boteghe had been established in various parts of northern and central Italy, particularly in Romagna, in Tuscany, and in the lordship of Urbino, where the manufacture was patronized at an early time by the ruling family, as also by the Sforza at Pesaro. Here the first use of the metallic lustre would appear to have been developed ; but we have even less historical evidence of the date of its earliest introduction than in the case of the tin enamel. Before that great improvement was adopted by any of the potteries in Italy, the pearly, the golden, and the ruby lustre colours were produced at Pesaro, and perhaps at Gubbio where it subse- quently attained its greatest perfection. Pesaro being a coast town of the Adriatic, and one where furnaces had long existed, would form a ready asylum for oriental workmen fleeing from persecution in their own country. It is reasonable to suppose that from them the use of these metallic pigments was acquired, and accordingly we find early pieces presumably of this fabrique, the decorative " motif" on which is eastern to a marked degree. Painted wares had been produced anterior to the use of the metallic pigments* 3 o MAJOLICA. and among them specimens are occasionally found betraying Persian influence in their design. The outlines on the "mezza maiolica " of this period were traced in manganese black or zaffre blue, with which last the shadings are also indicated ; the flesh is left white. A certain rigidity but truthfulness is observable in the design, crude and wanting in relief, but precise and free from timidity. A. moresque border frequently surrounds a coat-of-arms, portrait busts in profile of contemporary princes, or that of a saint or heathen goddess ; or the sacred monogram ; or, again (betrothal gifts) a heart with joined hands, as in the woodcut ; or portraits of ladies with a ribbon or banderole, on which the name is inscribed with a com- plimentary adjective as " bella," " diva," and the like ; such are the principal subjects of these early bacUi. The admirable " madreperla " lustre of these pieces, changing MAIOLICA 31 in colour and effect with every angle at which the light is reflected from their brilliant surface, is the leading characteristic and special beauty of this class of wares, which must have been in great re- quest and produced in considerable quantity. Pesaro and Diruta lay claim to their production, and each fabrique has its champions. We are inclined to ascribe the earlier and more important produc- tions to Pesaro, and are disposed to consider the Diruta fabrique as a subsequent and less important source of supply in respect to the quality of the wares. These barili are nearly all of the same size and form ; large heavy dishes of flesh-coloured clay with deep sunk centres and a projecting circular " giretto " behind, forming a foot or base ; this is invariably pierced with two lateral holes 32 MAIOLICA. for the purpose of introducing a cord by which to suspend them to the wall, thus proving that they were looked upon more as decorative pieces (piatti di pompa) than for general use upon the table ; the back is covered by a coarse yellow glaze, the front having a surface whitened by slip and painted as above-mentioned. The rim is sometimes ornamented in compartments (a guartiere), or with chequered, " chevrone " or imbricated patterns, or con- ventional flowers. Engraved (p. 31) is a fine plateau of early date : no. 4078 at South Kensington. The larger pieces of the period made at various places have a certain general resemblance in the clumsy fashion, the dry archaic style of drawing executed in blue outline, and in the diaper patterns of the border. Glazed wares of polychrome and subject decoration were no doubt produced before the introduction of the lustre colours and, judging from examples which have come down to us, the forms seem to have been partially derived from Persian, Hispano-moresque, and other oriental originals ; deep dishes with angular sides and narrow rims ; others with a wide border or side sloping at a gradual angle from the small circular centre. The gothic element is, however, traceable on some early pieces of north Italian origin. A more careful investigation of the records of Italian families, and the archives of the many towns at which potteries formerly existed, might throw considerable light on the history and estab- lishment of the various fabriques and the marks and characteristics of their productions ; but at present we can only form an approxi- mate opinion by comparison of the examples existing in collections with signed examples by the same hand. We agree in believing with Passeri that the potteries of Pesaro were of very early date, probably anterior to Gubbio, and think that full weight should be given to his statement that the use of the lustre pigments was introduced from the former to the latter fabrique, where it attained to unsurpassed excellence under the able management and im- provement of M. Giorgio but whether the furnaces of Faenza and MAIOLICA. 33 Forli were of earlier or subsequent establishment to that of Pesaro is still a matter of conjecture, and of Caffaggiolo and others we have no record. Of the antiquity of these last there can be no doubt. But although producing at the latter end of the fifteenth and early in the sixteenth centuries some of the most exquisite examples of artistic decoration and of the perfection of manufac- ture in this class of ceramics, we are unable to find a single proof of the use of the lustrous metallic tints, or a single example of pottery so enriched, which can with probability be ascribed to 34 MAIOLICA. the Faenza furnaces. The same remark applies to other potteries on the northern side of the Apennines. The Piedmontese and Lombard cities do not appear to have encouraged the potter's art to an equal extent in the i5th and 1 6th centuries, neither can we learn of any excellence at- tained in Venice till the establishment of Durantine and Pesarese artists at that city in the middle of the latter period. Possibly, the fine dish (engraved p. 33) may be of that manufacture : the costumes have a Venetian character. Perhaps commerce- did for the Queen of the Adriatic by the importation of Rhodian, Damascus, and other eastern wares, what native industry sup- plied to the pomp and luxury of the hill cities of Umbria ; for it must be borne in mind that the finer sorts of enamelled or glazed pottery, decorated by artistic hands, were only attainable by the richer class of purchasers ; more modest wares or wooden trenchers, and ancestral copper vessels, contenting the middle class. The northern duchies, Ferrara, Rimini, and Ravenna, also encouraged the art, but to a smaller extent than that of Urbino. It would seem that the use of the white stanniferous enamel did not become general in Italy until some years after the death of Luca della Robbia, in 1481 ; and was not adopted by the potters of Umbria before the end of the fifteenth century. CHAPTER IV. THE history of the development, perfection, and decline of the ceramic art of the renaissance in Italy is so intimately con- nected with and centred round that of the dukedom of Urbino, that in tracing its progress we must also briefly call to memory the fortunes and the failures of that noble house. In 1443 what had been but an unimportant mountain fief was erected into a duchy, and the house of Montefeltro rukd a fair territory in the person of the infamous Oddantonio, the first duke of Urbino. On his violent death in 1444 Federigo, his illegitimate brother, succeeded to the dukedom. Of en- lightened mind, as well as of martial capacity, he developed the native capabilities of the country and gathered about him at the court of Urbino the science and learning of the period. He built a noble castellated palace at Urbino, for the embellish- ment of which he invited the leading artists of the day. A patron of all art, and a great collector, he encouraged the manu- facture of the maiolica wares which flourished under his reign. On his death in 1482 his son Guidobaldo I. continued his father's patronage to the ceramic artists of the duchy, although much occupied in the Italian wars consequent on the French invasion by Charles VIII. Passeri states that fine maiolica (by which he means that covered with the tin enamel) was intro duc.ed into Pesaro in 1500 ; and there is some reason to believe that the new process came from Tuscany. It differed materially in composition and manufacture from the "mezza majolica" wares to which it was very superior, and was known as " Por- 1) 2 36 MAIOLICA. cellana," a name applied at that period in Italy to the choicer description of enamelled earthenware. Passed also states that in the inventory of the ducal palaces a large quantity of painted "majolica" vases were included under this name. The superior whiteness of the enamel, more nearly approaching to that of oriental porcelain, was probably the reason for its adoption ; but we must not confound the term as used in this sense with its technical meaning in reference to a decorative design known as "a porcellana." The introduction of the new enamel, which afforded a better ground for painting, did not cause the use of the bright metallic colours and prismatic glaze to be relinquished at those potteries where it had become established, but it appears to have stimu- lated a development in the artistic productions of other places, the wares of which before that period were less attractive. The botega of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio seems to have been at this time the great centre of the process of embellishment with the golden and ruby metallic lustres ; and, indeed, we have little or no knowledge of artistic pottery produced at that fabrique which is not so enriched. From some technicality in the process of the manufacture, some local advantage, or some secret in the composition, almost a monopoly of its use was established at Gubbio, for we have the evidence of well- known examples that from the end of the first to the com- mencement of the last quarter of the i5th century many pieces painted by the artists of Pesaro, Urbino, and Castel Durante, were sent there to receive the additional enrich- ment of the lustre colours. Pieces may be seen in collec- tions signed in blue by the artist Francesco Xanto and others which have been subsequently lustred at Gubbio, and again signed in ihe metallic pigment by the " maestro " of that botega. At Diruta also its use appears to have been ex tensive though not to so exclusive a degree nor on wares of such high character as at Gubbio, neither are we enabled by MAIOLJCA. 37 the possession of examples to conclude that the works of other fabriques were sent to Diruta for the additional embek lishment. The crude drawing of the earlier ware improved very slowly \ in 1502 tiles executed for the palace at Pesaro were still of sorry design ; but it developed by the introduction of half tints, the colouring of the drapery, and in the composition of the groups of figures, inspired by the works of Timoteo della Vite and other artists of the Umbrian school. At Pesaro the art appears to have attained its highest perfection at the botega of the Lan- franco family, about 1540-45. The establishment of the ducal Court at Urbino naturally drew more favour to the potteries of that city, and of its near neighbour Castel Durante. The latter of these appears also to have been a seat of this industry from very remote times, and not only to have furnished large quantities of glazed earthenware but also artistic works of the highest merit. Castel Durante not only produced fine wares at home but artists of great ability emigrated from her, establishing themselves at various places. Hence originally came the Fontana family, the most important producers of the higher class of decorative pottery at Urbino. At Venice Francesco Pieragnolo in 1545, accompanied by his father Gian-Antonio da Pesaro, formed a botega; but his wares are not among the earliest dated pieces made in that city, where we know that M Ludovico was producing admirable works five years previously, and M Jacomo da Pesaro in 1542. A member of the Fontana family, Camillo, younger brother of the celebrated Orazio, went to Florence, and another M Camillo to Ferrara in 1567, by the request of the then reign- ing duke, Alfonso II. ; in 1600 we find that Maestro Diomede Durante had a pottery at Rome, producing pieces painted by Gio. Paulo Savino, in the style of the Urbino grotesques on white ground, which had been brought to such perfection by the Fontana family. Another artist of this family, Guido di 38 MAIOLICA. Savino, is stated to have previously established himself at Antwerp. 'At Urbino and Gubbio the shaped pieces, the vases, cisterns, &c. were of large size admirably modelled, as, for instance, the fine vase at South Kensington, no. 515, in the woodcut; they were also richly " istoriata " with subjects from sacred and pro- fane history, poetry, &c. : the produce of the celebrated Fontana botega being, perhaps, the most important of them. Here also worked the able artist Francesco Xanto, from 1530 to 1541 (latterly in the pottery of Francesco Silvano), so many of whose painted pieces were subsequently decorated with ruby and gold lustre at Gubbio. From 1520 to 1540 the art constantly advanced in this duchy, and had retained great perfection till 1560. It is probable that the potteries at Castel Durante were of earlier foundation than those at Urbino and, from their first establishment to the de- MAIOLICA. 39 cadence of the art were some of the most important and pro- ductive furnaces of the duchy. Here several boteghe existed, one of which was under the direction of the cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpasso who, himself an artist and a professor of medicine, was doubtless well advanced in the chemical knowledge of his day. He worked about 1550, and has left the important and interesting manuscript, entitled "Li tre libri dell' arte dell' Vasajo," now in the library of the South Kensington museum. This manuscript was printed and published at Rome in 1857, and a translation in French at Paris in 1841, both editions with engraved copies of the numerous designs. Guidobaldo I. was succeeded in the dukedom by his nephew Francesco Maria Delia Rovere, in 1508, who, incurring the resentment of pope Leo the tenth, was obliged to retire into Lombardy but was reinstated in 1517. Rome was sacked in 1527, and history accuses Guidobaldo of having permitted the horrible act without interfering to prevent it. He died from poison in 1538 at Pesaro, whither he had retired after a re- verseful life and reign. His duchess was the excellent Leonora Gonzaga. She built a palace near Pesaro, known as the " Imperiale," richly decorated by able artists among whom was Raffaelle dal Colle, whose designs were also adopted for the maiolica ware. The frequently repeated error of ascribing the actual painting, as also the making designs for this ware, to the great Raffaelle Sanzio may probably have arisen from the simi- larity in the Christian names of these artists. The development of the manufacture in the duchy of Urbino may be considered to have attained its culminating point about 1540, after which, for some twenty years, it continued in great excellence not only as regards the " istoriati," but more partial- larly in the shaped pieces and dishes (of which we engrave an example p. 40) decorated with the so-called u Urbino arabesques" on a clear white ground; the subjects painted in medallions, surrounded by grotesques of admirable invention and execution, 4 o MAIOLICA. after the style known as " Raffaellesque." But excellent and highly decorative as are the finer products of this period from the furnaces of the Fontana of Urbino, or of the Lanfranchi of Pesaro, they want to the eye of the true connoisseur the senti- ment and expressive drawing, the exquisite finish and delicacy, the rich colour, and the admirable design of the earlier works produced at the Casa Pirota in Faenza, at Forli, Castel Durante Siena, and Caffaggiolo, in the latter years of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth centuries, and by M Giorgio at" MAIOLICA. 41 Gubbio, many of which rival in beauty the exquisite miniature illuminations of that palmy period of Italian art. The service in the Correr museum in Venice, supposed to have been painted by an unknown artist of Faenza and dated 1482, is of high quality ; and we possess at South Kensington works by his hand, particu- larly a plaque or tile (No. 69) on which is a representation of the Resurrection of our Lord, worthy of being ranked with the highest productions of pictorial art. The borders of grotesques on the plates of this earlier period differ greatly from those of the Urbino factories of the middle time, being generally grounded on dark blue or yellow, and executed with great delicacy of touch 42 MAIOLICA. and power of colouring ; the centres of the smaller pieces are usually occupied by single figures, small medallion subjects, portrait heads, amorini, shields-of-arms, &c. ; frequently they were intended for " amatorii " or love tokens. Some of the most careful and highly finished productions of M Giorgio are of this early time, before he was in the habit of signing with the well-known initials M G ; the earliest so signed being the admirable St. Francis tazza at South Kensington, dated 1517. We may therefore affirm that the choicest works in Italian pottery were produced during a period which extended from 1480 to 1520 or 1530; thence till 1560 was its meridian, although some fine works were produced at Urbino by the Fontana till 1570; before that time the ruby lustre had been lost, and soon after a rapid decline of design and execution reduces all to painful inferiority. The woodcut (p. 41) is from a splendid dish, dated 1533, no. 1748, at South Kensington. Guidobaldo II., who had succeeded to Francesco Maria in 1538, wanted the force of character and nice appreciation of the higher literature and art which had distinguished his father ; but he was a great patron of the ceramic productions of his duchy, and sought to improve the designs used by painters on pottery by the introduction of subjects of higher character and composition. With this view, lavish of expense, he bought original drawings by Raffaelle and the engravings of Marc Antonio from that master's designs. He also made presents of services to contemporary princes and friends. One, given to the emperor Charles V., a double service, is mentioned by Vasari, the vases of which had been painted from the designs of Battista Franco, a Venetian, whom he had invited to Urbino. Another service of which pieces are extant was given by the duke to Andrea da Volterra, his confessor. For the Spezieria or medical dispensary, attached to his own palace, he ordered a complete set of vases and drug pots ; designs were prepared for these by B. Franco and Raffaelle dal Colle and executed at the botega of MAIOLICA. 43 Orazio Fontana, by whom some of the pieces were painted. They were subsequently presented by duke Francesco Maria II. to the Santa Casa at Loreto, where the greater part of them are still preserved. Some of them were engraved by Bartoli. The story tells us that so highly were they esteemed by Christina of Sweden that she offered to buy them for their weight of gold, after a grand duke of Florence had more prudently proposed an equal number of silver vessels of like weight. Orazio Fontana, the great artist potter and painter of Urbino, worked for rhe duke from 1540 to 1560 and carried the art to the highest perfection. Passeri states that Orazio had no equal in the execution of his paintings, the distribution of his colours, and in the calculation of the effect of the fire upon them in the production of his wares. He also quotes various contemporary authors who speak of the excellence of the maiolica of this period. After the death of Orazio Fontana and Battista Franco works of an inferior class only were produced from the designs of the Flemish engravers. From 1580 the decline of the art was rapid. It met but small encouragement from duke Francesco Maria II., who succeeded in 1574, except during his residence at Castel Durante where it still, though feebly, survived. He abdicated in favour of the Holy See, and died in 1631. The rich collections of art then remaining at Urbino became the property of Ferdinand de' Medici, who had married the duke's granddaughter, and were removed to Florence. Artistic manufactories had, in addition to those of the Umbrian duchy, greatly increased in various parts of Italy under the encouragement of powerful local families ; but none appear to have attained to higher excellence than those of Tuscany. At Caffaggiolo under the powerful patronage of the Medici, and at Siena, some of the most excellent pieces of this beautiful pottery were produced, rivalling but not surpassing the fine examples of Faenza. The Tuscan pieces are remarkable for their rich enamel, for 44 MAJOLICA. the force and brilliancy of the colours, and for the execution and design of the grotesque borders and other decoration ; a deep rich blue, a peculiar opaque but bright red, and a brilliant yellow, are characteristic pigments. The existence of the former fabrique has been made known to us only by the inscription of the name on some few pieces preserved in cabinets. From their style and the mark accompanying the inscription we are enabled to detect many examples, some of which bear concurrent testimony in the subjects connected with the history of the Medici family with which they are painted. The well known plate (in the woodcut) on which a painter is represented engaged in executing the portraits of a noble personage and his lady, who are seated near, MAIOLICA. 45 and which were supposed to be intended for Raffaelle and the Fornarina, is a fine specimen of the work of perhaps the most able artist engaged at this pottery. This beautiful example is now in the South Kensington museum, acquired from the Bernal collection. At Siena also admirable works were produced but we are disposed to think that their inspiration was derived from Caffag- giolo, whence also her potters probably received instruction in the application of the -stanniferous enamel. Some pieces of the latter end of the fifteenth century are with probability ascribed to Siena, and dated pieces as early as 1501. Tiles also from the same fabrique are remarkable for the excellence of their grotesque borders on an orange yellow ground, having centres painted with great delicacy : some unusual examples having a black ground to their decorative borders. Rome and the south of Italy do not appear to have produced meritorious works in this field, during the period of its greatest excellence in the northern and Tuscan states ; and it is not till the dispersion of the artists, consequent upon the absorption of the Umbrian duchy into the Pontifical states, that we find a Durantine establishing a pottery at Rome, and producing in 1600 an inferior repetition of the grotesque style so admirable in the hands of the Fontana, half a century earlier at Urbino. The decadence was rapid ; an increased number of inferior potteries produced wares of a lower price and quality ; the fall of the ducal houses which had so greatly encouraged its higher excel- lence as a branch of fine art, together with the general deteriora- tion in artistic taste, alike tended to its end. CHAPTER V. A REVIVAL in the production of native decorative earthenware took place in various parts of Italy, as also in the rest of Europe. The efforts made to imitate true porcelain were reflected by im- provements in the quality and decoration of enamelled earthen- ware, and in the last century we find potteries in various parts of Piedmont and Lombardy, Venice, Genoa and Savona, Urbino and Pesaro, Siena, Castelli, Florence and Rome, producing wares of greater or less artistic excellence. But although careful drawing is occasionally found, as on some of the pieces painted by Fer- dinando Maria Campana at Siena, from the prints cf Marc Antonio, and some charming designs with borders of amorini among foliage, and subject pieces of great merit from the Castelli fabrique ; and although the " technique " of the manufacture is also of great excellence ; the ornamentation wants that masculine power of colouring and vigour of the renaissance, so strikingly apparent upon the better productions of the older furnaces, and the admirable delicacy and richness of effect to be seen upon the earlier works. The endeavours made throughout Europe to discover a method of making porcelain, similar in its qualities or approaching to that imported from China, had begun in the sixteenth century. In this direction also royal encouragement was of the greatest value, and we find that first in the field of discovery was, as naturally might be expected, that country in which the enamelled earthen- ware had previously reached its highest perfection. Under the patronage of the Grand Duke Francis I. about 1580, experiments MAIOLICA. 47 were made which at length resulted in the production of an artificial porcelain of close body and even glaze. The existence of such a production and the history of its origin have been revealed to us only within the last few years, and we are indebted to Dr. Foresi of Florence for having made this discovery, so interesting in the history of the ceramic arts. He had noticed and collected some pieces of a porcelain of heavy nature and indifferent whiteness, decorated in blue with flower and leafage pattern of somewhat oriental style but at the same time unmistakably European, on some of which a mark occurs consisting of the capital letter F, surmounted by a dome. The earliest recorded European porcelain had heretofore been that produced by Dr. D wight, at Fulham, in 1671, and at St. Cloud in France, about 1695, but the specimens found by Dr. Foresi were manifestly not attributable to either of these or any other known sources. Further researches brought to light a piece of the same ware on which the pellets of the Medici coat were substituted for the more useful mark, and led to a search among the records of that house. Dr. Foresi was rewarded for his trouble by the discovery that the above-named duke had actually caused experiments to be made, and had estab- lished a private fabrique in connection with his laboratory in the Boboli gardens. The Magliabecchian library yielded an important manuscript compilation by some person employed by the duke, giving the nature of the composition and details of the production of this ware. The marks on the pieces explained the rest. The Medici arms and the initials F.M.M.E.D.I.I., reading " Franciscus Medici Magnus Etrurise Dux Secundus," on one im- portant piece now in the collection of the baron Gustave de Roth- schild of Paris, clearly attached it to his reign, while the letter F, the initial of the city, and the dome of her cathedral of which she was so proud, equally pointed to the place of if* production. Another exceptionally fine and interesting piece has recently been acquired in Italy by signer Alessandro Castellani. It is a shallow basin in the centre of which the figuie of St. Mark, with MA TO LIC A. the lion, is painted in the usual blue pigment, and in a manner which stamps it as the work of a master's pencil. What makes this specimen particularly interesting is the existence of a monogram composed of the letters G. and P. which is painted on the volume held beneath the lion's paw, while on the reverse of the piece the usual mark occurs, as given in the accompanying facsimile. It has been suggested that this monogram may be that of Raffaelle's great pupil, Giulio Pippi ddto Romano, and that, as it has been stated that he occasionally painted upon enamelled earthenware, this piece may be considered as his work. That the design was from the hand of that master is probable, and that its execution was by able ceramic painters is equally so : but Giulio Romano died in 1546, whereas the Medici porcelain does not appear to have been perfected before 1580. This Florentine porcelain is especially rare ; scarcely thirty examples being known to exist. Three of these are at South MAIOLICA. 49 Kensington, and one is in the possession of the present writer. It is of value to our subject, not merely as an important episode in the narrative of the rise and progress of ceramic industry in Italy but from its exceptional nature, as one at least of the specimens was decorated by an artist whose handiwork is to be recognised upon pieces of the Urbino enamelled earthenware. The fine "Brocca" 15 inches high, belonging to the baron Gustave Rothschild, is surmounted by an elegantly formed handle springing from grotesque winged masks, modelled in relief. The body is decorated with two belts of grotesques, divided by a narrower one, on which are masks and scroll orna- ments; beneath these is a band divided into arched panels or compartments, in each of which is a flower in somewhat Persian taste. These grotesques are executed with great freedom and force and at the same time with a careful finish and delicacy, and in the manner of an unknown painter who worked at the botega of Camillo Fontana. It remains to us only to notice the productions of the present day, many of the more meritorious of which are only imitations (in some instances, we regret to say, produced for fraudulent pur- poses) of the more excellent works of an original period of art; and to give some account of the mode of manufacture, the forms and uses of the pieces, and the manner of their decoration. The first successful attempt at re-producing the Italian enamelled pottery of the renaissance from original models was, we believe, made at Doccia (the manufactory belonging to the Marquis Ginori) near Florence. The greater number of these pieces were ordered by an unprincipled dealer of that city who supplied the models, and by whom and his agents they were more or less scratched, chipped and otherwise " doctored " to look old, and so imposed upon unwary purchasers at high prices. The writer recollects some of these specimens which were, years since, offered to him at Leghorn by an English tradesman of position (himself possibly deceived), to which a family history had been attached, their 5 o MAJOLICA. reputed owner (it was said) being under the necessity of parting with them. Since that period the productions of Doccia have improved, the lustre pigment has been re-produced, and these revivals have been justly admired at various international exhibi- tions of art and industry as legitimate works of the manufactory. But a still better imitation of the metallic lustre of Gubbio has been produced by an artist of that city ; and at Siena some excellent copies of tiles and other pieces have been made ; so also at Faenza. Bologna, too, has made copies of the rilievos of Delia Robbia which, like those produced at Doccia, may be purchased new of the makers, or found, scratched and dirty, in various curiosity shops throughout Europe, ready to pass for old, some of the worst being occasionally signed as by Luca to enhance their interest. It is to be regretted that a few of these forgeries, as well as admirably executed terra-cottas, have found their way into public museums under a false passport. At Naples reproductions of the wares of Castelli are well executed. In France the excellent reproductions of Persian and Rhodian wares by Deck, and some good imitations of the Italian enamelled and lustred pottery by various artists ; and in England the pieces produced by Minton, Wedgwood, and other manufacturers, have led to modifications and adaptations, resulting in ^n important development of this branch of artistic pottery. CHAPTER VI. WE are fortunate in possessing a manual of the Italian potters' art of the sixteenth century, in the manuscript by the " Cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpassi Durantino," as he signs his name on the title page of his work. Nearly all the information on this branch of the subject, conveyed to us by Passeri and subsequently by Sig. Giuseppe Raffaelli and other writers, has been gathered from that manuscript written in 1548. We think we cannot do better than go at once to this fountain head, and epitomize the informa- tion it conveys, upon the manner and materials, upon the forms and decoration, of maiolica. After a " prologo " in which the author defends himself from the invidious remarks of others, he tells us how the earth or clay brought down by the river Metauro was gathered from its bed during the summer when the stream was low, and by some was made into large balls, which were stowed in holes (terrat) pur- posely dug in the ground ; by others it was previously dried in the sun ; here it remained to mellow and purge itself from impurities, which otherwise would be injurious. This same method of gathering the material for the foundation of the wares was adopted at many other places. At Venice the earth of Ravenna and Rimini is worked, although they frequently use that dug at Battaglia, near Padua, but for the better sort that of Pesaro. Our author enters into further details of the method of gather- ing the potters' clay where there are no rivers, by digging a -succession of square pits connected by a channel in the depres- 52 MAIOLICA. sions between hills, into which the earth, washed by showers of rain, is refined in its passage from pit to pit. For inferior wares the earth is then collected on a table and well beaten with an iron instrument, weighing twelve pounds, three or four times, being kneaded with the fingers as a woman would in making bread, and all impurities carefully removed. Afterwards it is formed into masses, from which a piece is taken to work upon the wheel or press into moulds. If the earth is too " morbida " it is placed upon the wall or house top, on sieves, through which it is washed by the rain, and gathered in old broken vases, &c., placed beneath. For making wares " all' urbinate " (meaning probably with a white ground) the dug clay ought to be white, for if of a blue colour it will not take the tin glaze ; this, however, is not objectionable if it is to be covered with a slip of " terra di Vicenza " (a white clay), a method which he terms " alia castellana." But it is the reverse with the clay gathered from the beds of rivers, the blue in this case being of the better quality. It is difficult for us now accurately to apply the names which he gives to the variously shaped pieces, and the more so, as we are informed that in our author's time various names were attached by different artists and at different potteries to the same form. Thus the "Vaso a pera" was also known as " Vaso da due maniche " and " Vaso Dorico ; " and the body of such a vase was by some made in one piece, by others in two or three, making joints at the lower part and at the insertion of the neck, and uniting them by means of lute (barbatina). Vases and jugs with pyriform bodies, moulded handles, and shaped spouts, or lips, were known as "a bronzo antico" (fig. i), their forms, doubtless, being derived from the antique bronze vessels discovered in excavations. Some of these pieces have a stopper fitting into the neck by a screw, the worm of which is worked upon it by means of a piece of wood (stecca) formed with projecting teeth, the interior of the MAIOLICA. 53 neck being furnished with a corresponding sunken worm. The details of all these methods are illustrated on the third table of FIG. r. FIG. 2. his atlas of plates. After telling us that the albardlo (fig. 2), or drug pot, universally known under that name, is made of different sizes and always of one piece, our author describes the manner of FIG. 3. FIG. 4. forming the Vaso senza bocca (fig. 3), a sort of puzzle jug with hermetically fixed cover on the top and an opening beneath the foot, from which an inverted funnel rises inside the body of the vase. To fill it, the piece must be turned upside down and the liquid poured into the funnel below, and may be again poured out 54 MAIOLICA. at the spout when required, in the ordinary way, the vase having been placed upright. It is hardly necessary to give a list of different forms, but we may follow our author in his description of that set of five, or sometimes nine separate pieces, which, fitting together, form a single vase (fig. 4). These sets, known as " scudella da donna di parto " or " vasi puerperali," were made for the use of ladies in their confinements, and consist of the following pieces : (i.) The broth basin or Scodella, on raised foot. Over this fits the lid (2) which also does duty as a plate (Tagliere) for the roll or slice of bread ; inverted over this is the drinking cup. (3), Ongaresca, upon the foot of which fits the salt cellar, Saliera (4), surmounted by its cover (5). The particulars of the arrangement of the nine pieces are not given. Single portions of these are to be found in collections, but the present writer is not aware of any one com- plete set having been preserved. Using either the mngiuolo or the scudella, the mass of clay placed upon the disk is revolved by the wheel and fashioned into form with the hands, assisted by variously shaped pieces of flat wood (stecche) and moulding tools of iron (serri) all of which are figured in Piccolpasso's designs. The forms of the seggers, case (that is, cases made of fire-clay and pierced with holes, in which the finer wares are baked, being thus protected from dirt or accident in the furnace), and the composition of the clay of which they were made, as also of the tagli, punte, smarelle, pironi, &c. variously formed tripods and supports for holding the pieces to be fired, are given us in detail. The clay consists of a mixture of the red earth used for coarser wares and the white, which is reserved for vases and finer pieces. Shaped pieces with ornaments in relief, masks, spouts, handles, &c. are formed in moulds made of plaster of Paris (gesso) upon the original models. The mould being ready, the potter's clay is formed into a cheese-shaped mass of a diameter suitable to the MAIOLICA. 55 size of the mould ; from this slices are cut by means of a wire worked over two pieces of wood of the thickness of the required slice, and placed at either side of the cheese of clay. A slice of even thickness being thus obtained it is pressed by the hand into the hollows of the mould; that for the other side of the piece is then steadily pressed over the clay which occupies the correspond- ing mould, and the excess exuding from the edge between is neatly cut away. The foot would be similarly formed in another mould, and subsequently attached to the bowl by means of lute (barbatina). This lute is made of the finer quality of clay, much worked and allowed to dry, then mixed with a certain quantity of the shearings of fine woollen cloth, kneaded with water and diluted to the consistence of thick cream. To make shaped vases or ewers (bronzi antiche) a mould is formed to each side of the piece, uniting longitudinally at the handle and spout ; the clay pressed into each of these is neatly cut from the edge by means of the archetto, a wire strained across a forked stick, and joined to the corresponding side with barba- tina by which also the handle, formed in another mould, is attached to the piece, the inside being smoothed at the joint by means of a knobbed stick (bastone). The pieces known as " abborchiati," such as salt-cellars with ornaments in rilievo, are made in the same manner, as are also the " smartellati " or tazze, &c. formed after the manner of pieces in beaten metal (repousse] with bosses and radiating compartments in relief. The basket- like pieces (canestrella) were similarly moulded. In his second book Piccolpasso gives the receipts and methods of preparing the glaze and colours, commencing with the " marza- cotto," the silicate of potass or glass, which is the foundation of all glaze. We are then told the manner of constructing a reverberator^ furnace in which the tin and lead can be oxydized, and which is built of brick with an earth called " sciabione," probably a sort of fire-clay. It consists of an elongated square structure divided longitudinally into two compartments, in one of 56 MAIOL1CA. which is placed the fire, while the other is occupied, on a higher level, by a shallow tray or trough made of titfo, a volcanic stone, or of brickwork, to contain the metals, upon and over which the flame of the burning wood is made to play in its passage to the draft hole at the end. The construction of other furnaces is his next subject. They were built of brick and of an elongated quadrilateral plan, divided into two stories by an arched floor, pierced to allow of a free circulation to the heat ; the upper chamber, which is higher than the lower, is furnished with four small openings on the upper part of either side (vedette) and nine similar ones in the vaulted roof; the lower chamber has a well or depression sunk about one foot beneath the surface to receive the ashes from the fire, and both it and the upper one have an arched opening or feeding door (boccd) at one end. The dimensions usual at Castel Durante were six feet long by five wide, and six high, but in Venice they were larger, for, says Piccolpasso, " I have seen one at the house of M Francesco di Pier ten feet wide by twelve long, outside, having three openings to feed the fire." In the upper chamber the wares are placed for baking, the finer sorts being enclosed in the seggers (case) piled one above another, and the coarser arranged between, supported by pieces of tile, &c. and so packed as to fill the chamber as much as possible without impeding the free current of the fire. This is the first baking, and at the same time the pigments, prepared as previously described, are submitted to the action of the fire in the upper part of the furnace. The opening to the upper chamber is then roughly bricked and luted up, leaving only a small orifice (bocchettd) in the upper part. The small lateral openings (vedette} are also closed, and those in the roof loosely covered with pieces of tile. The vases containing the mixture of sand and feccia for making the marzacotto are then placed upon each other under the furnace at the further end (probably in the lower or fire cham- ber). All being prepared, and invoking the name of God, " uso MAJOLICA. 57 Christiano," with the sign of the cross, take a handful of straw and light the fire made of well-dried wood placed in the lower chamber, and which must be gradually increased for four hours, taking care that it is never pushed too much, lest the pieces run or become too hard to receive the glaze. The furnace should be of a clear heat all throughout and so continued for about twelve hours, drawing away the ashes from below with the "cacciabragie" or rake. When sufficiently baked let the fire burn out, and re- move the cinders that all may become cool. We must refer to the Introduction to the large catalogue of the maiolica collection at South Kensington for further extracts, quoting here one sentence only where the author says, "And now I will give you the ' sbiancheggiati ' that is made in Lombardy, bearing in mind that the earth of Vicenza is used, making the design on the white earth ; I would say with a style of iron of this kind (gives design), and this drawing is called ' sgraffio.' ; ' This is an interesting passage connecting as it does these incised wares with the fabriques of Lombardy, to which, from the cha- racter of the designs upon the earlier pieces, we have always assigned them. In his third book Piccolpasso goes into further details of the glaze and colours, manner of painting, firing, &c. The " bianchetto " which is only once baked, and the other colours, being removed from the furnace, are triturated with water on a " piletta " or hand colour mill, or by means of a pestle and mortar, to reduce them to a fine powder, and passed through a horse-hair sieve. Some grind them on a slab of porphyry which is even better. The green pigment may be baked two or three times. The " zallo " and the " zallulino," after once or twice baking, are covered with earth and again baked in the hottest part of the furnace. The white enamel glaze, having been properly milled and fined through a sieve, is made into a bath with water to the consistency of milk. The pottery baked in biscuit is taken out of the furnace, 5 manufacture, the term has been more generally given : all varieties of Italian enamelled pottery being usually, though wrongly, known as " Maiolica." The Gubbio fabrique was in full work previous to 1518; and the brilliantly lustred dish, which we engrave, now at South Kensington is before that date. That some of these early bacili so well known and apparently the work of one artist were made at Pesaro, whence the secret and probably the artist passed to Gubbio, is far from improbable. The reason for this emigration is not known, but it may be surmised that the large quantity 1 1 4 MAIOL1CA. of broom and other brush-wood, necessary for the reducing process of the reverberatory furnace in which this lustre was produced, might have been more abundantly supplied by the hills of Gubbio than in the vicinity of the larger city on the coast. That the process of producing these metallic effects was costly, we gather from Piccolpasso's statement that sometimes not more than six pieces out of a hundred succeeded in the firing. The fame of the Gubbio wares is associated almost entirely with one name, that of Giorgio Andreoli. We learn from the marchese Brancaleoni that this artist was the son of Pietro, of a " Castello " called " Judeo," in the diocese of Pavia ; and that, accompanied by his brother Salimbene, he went to Gubbio in the second half of the "i 5th century. He appears to have left and again returned thither in 1492, accompanied by his younger brother Giovanni. They were enrolled as citizens on the 23rd May 1498, on pain of forfeiting 500 ducats if they left the city in which they engaged to continue practising their ceramic art. Patronised by the dukes of Urbino, Giorgio was made " castel- lano " of Gubbio. Passeri states that the family was noble in Pavia. It is not known why or when he was created a " Maestro," a title prized even more than nobility, but it is to be presumed that it took place at the time of his enrolment as a citizen ; his name with the title " Maestro " first appearing on a document dated that same year, 1498. Piccolpasso states that Maiolica painters were considered noble by profession. The family of Andreoli and the " Casa " still exist in Gubbio, and it was asserted by his descendant Girolamo Andreoli, who died some 40 years since, that political motives induced their emigra- tion from Pavia. Maestro Giorgio was an artist by profession, not only as a draughtsman but as a modeller, and being familiar with the enamelled terra cottas of Luca della Robbia is said to have executed with his own hands and in their manner large altar- pieces. We were once disposed to think that great confusion MAIOLICA. 115 existed in respect to these altar-pieces in rilievo, and were inclined to the belief that although some of the smaller lustred works may have been modelled by Giorgio the larger altar-pieces were really only imported by him. Judging from the most important which we have been able to examine, the " Madonna del Rosario " portions of which are in the museum at Frankfort- on-the-Maine, it seemed to approach more nearly to the work of some member of the Delia Robbia family. This fine work is in part glazed, and in part coloured in distemper on the unglazed terra cotta, in which respect it precisely agrees with works known to have been executed by Andrea della Robbia assisted by his sons. There are no signs of the application of the lustre colours to any portion of the work, but this might be accounted for by the great risk of failure in the firing, particularly to pieces of such large size and in high relief. Be this as it may, from a further consideration of the style of this work and the record of others, some of which are heightened with the lustre colours, and the fact stated by the marchese Brancaleoni that a receipt for an altar- piece is still preserved in the archives of Gubbio, we are inclined to think that history must be correct in attributing these important works in ceramic sculpture to M Giorgio Andreoli. If they were his unassisted work, he deserves as high a place among the modellers of his period as he is acknowledged to have among artistic potters. To go back twelve years in the history of the products of this fabrique, we have in the South Kensington museum a very interesting example of a work in rilievo, no. 2601, a figure of S. Sebastian, lustred with the gold and ruby pigments, and dated 1501. Notwithstanding its inferiority of modelling when com- pared with later works, we are in little doubt that this is by M c Giorgio's own hand, agreeing as it does in the manner of its painted outline and shading with the treatment of subjects on the earlier dishes, believed to be by him. We must also bear in mind that an interval of twelve years had elapsed between this comparatively crude work, and that beautiful altar-piece whose n6 MAIOLICA. excellence causes us some doubt in ascribing it to his unaided hand ; and we may observe at the same time an equal difference MAJOLICA. 117 in the merit of his own painted pieces. The small bowl here engraved is of about this period, and is characteristic of a style of ornament commonly found upon Gubbio ware. This is now at South Kensington. We add also another piece, no. 8906 ; well worth the attention of a student, as exhibiting the full power attainable by the introduction of the lustre tints. The yellow has a full rich golden tone, and the ruby a pure vivid red. Passeri states that Giorgio brought the secret of the ruby lustre n8 MAJOLICA. with him from Pavia, and M. Jacquemart infers that he must have produced works at Pavia before going to Gubbio ; but we are inclined to think with Mr. Robinson that it was from an artist previously working at Gubbio that he acquired the art and the monopoly of the ruby tint ; and it is by no means improbable that this artist, or his predecessor, may have emigrated from Pesaro as stated above. The following conclusions arrived at by Mr. Robinson after the careful study of a vast number of examples of the Gubbio and other works are endorsed by the writer, who, having contributed some few of the facts upon which those conclusions were based, has himself examined the contents of the principal European collections. Those conclusions are : ist. That maestro Giorgio did not invent the ruby lustre, but succeeded to and monopolized the use of a pigment,. used by an earlier artist of Gubbio. 2d. That the signed works were really painted by several distinct hands. 30. That his own work may be distinguished with approxi- mate certainty. 4th. That probably nearly all the " istoriati " pieces, (1530-50) of Urbino, Castel Durante, or other fabriques, en- riched with lustre, were so decorated by a subsequent operation at the Giorgio botega ; and, 5th. Consequently, the use of lustre colours was mainly confined to Gubbio, where painted wares by Xanto and other artists working at Urbino and other places were sent to be lustred. Before entering upon the subject of maestro Giorgio's own- works it will be necessary to glance at the earlier productions of his predecessors and probable instructors. In the absence ot more positive evidence of the manufacture of early lustred wares at Pesaro, and with a view to keeping all the lustred wares to- gether as much as possible, we have thought it more convenient MAIOLICA. 119 to include in the large catalogue those pieces which may probably have been made at that city among the lustred wares of Gubbio, always affixing to each such piece the name of Pesaro and of Gubbio with a (?), and arranging them as a separate class. And in order to facilitate the methodical study of the rise and development of the art at Gubbio we have classified the lustred wares in the following manner, and in probable sequence of date : A. Works ascribed to Pesaro (or Gubbio ? ), the typical " bacili " referred to by Passeri, &c. B. Works believed of the early master who preceded M Giorgio at Gubbio. C. Works ascribed to maestro Giorgio's own hand. D. Works of the fabrique, and pieces painted by unknown artists, though bearing the initials of the master. E. Works by the artist signing N. and by his assistants. F. Works painted by other artists at other fabriques, and subsequently lustred at Gubbio. G. Works of M Prestino, and of the later period. Of the first class A. are those early " mezza-maiolica " dishes having a lustre of a peculiar pearly effect : these are frequently painted with portraits and armorial bearings, and have by many writers been ascribed to the Diruta potteries. At South Ken- sington, no. 7160 is a characteristic example of the usual type, while in no. 1 606 we have an early specimen of the ruby lustre. On the back of no. 3035 is found the only mark with which I am acquainted on pieces of this class; the well-known Gubbio scroll executed in manganese colour on the course yellow glaze. Class B. is important as connecting the former with the works of the Gubbio furnaces. No 7682 is a typical piece, bearing another variety of the Gubbio scroll mark in dark colour. Class C. contains of course the cream of the manufacture, being the works assigned to M Giorgio's own hand. The i2o MAIOLICA. museum series is very complete, containing specimens from the earliest period of his unsigned work. The deep tazza and large plateau, both of which we engrave, are admirable examples of this period. The first dated piece in any collection which we have every reason to believe a work of maestro Giorgio, is the rilievo of S. Sebastian (shown in the woodcut, p. 116). Other but undated works in rilievo exist, which, as in this instance, are heightened with the gold and ruby pigments. The earliest example having a mark which may perhaps be that of Giorgio, and painted by him, is a small plate in the possession of Mon- signore Cajani ; a central medallion with half figure of S. Pe- tronio, surrounded by a border of the style of the early wares, beautifully and carefully drawn and lustred with ruby and gold : MAJOLICA. I2 i it is marked at the back with a sort of G, intersected by a cross and a paraphe, or flourish : see p. 122. We now come to the period of Giorgio's signed pieces, some of the first of which show to what perfection he had brought his art. The earliest known signed and dated piece is in the collection of Mr. Robert Napier ; the border is decorated with trophies, &c. among which occurs the date 1517 written in blue, while at the back 1518 is pencilled in lustre colours. Another plate of the same service and having the same initials of the owner, a piece of exceeding beauty for the quality of the lustre colours, is in the i 2 2 MAIOLJCA. British museum ; we give (p. 123) a facsimile of the central initials and of the date on the back : and also a woodcut (p. 124), from a small tazza at South Kensington of about the same period. Mr. Robinson speaks of this specimen as " being of the most perfect technique of the master ; and that, although he was not a powerful draughtsman, yet this single piece would suffice to establish his claims as a colourist." M Giorgio's manner of decoration consists of foliated scrolls and other ornaments terminating in dolphins, eagles, and human heads, trophies, masks, &c. ; in the drawing of which he exhibited considerable power with great facility of invention. These " grotesche " differ materially from those of Urbino and Faenza, approaching more to the style of some of the Castel Durante designs. In the drawing of figures, and of the nude, Giorgio cannot be ranked as an artist of the first class. From 1519 his signature, greatly varied, occurs through succeeding years. It would be useless to repeat the many varieties, several of which will be seen in the large catalogue and among the marks on speci- mens in other collections. We believe that to whim or accident may be ascribed those changes that have tasked the ingenuity of connoisseurs to read as other names. His finer and more im- portant pieces were generally signed in full " Maestro Giorgio da Ugubio " with the year, and sometimes the day of the month. MAIOLICA. 123 About the year 1525 he executed some of his most beautiful \vorks ; perhaps the finest large dish, and of the highest quality which has been preserved to us, was lately in the possession of the baronne de Parpart ; we understand that it has been sold for ,880. In that piece a rich grotesque border surrounds the subject of Diana and her nymphs, surprised by Actaeon ; on p. 125 is a fac-simile, half size, of the signature at the back. In the next division D. are the works of the fabrique under Giorgio's direction, and pieces which though manifestly painted by other hands are signed in lustre with his initials or full signa- 124 MAJOLICA. ture. We have no means of learning what part his brothers under- took in the manufactory. A separate division has also been formed of the works ascribed to or signed by the artist who used the letter N, variously formed, as his monogram. Mr. Robinson has ingeniously suggested that this letter, containing as it does the three, V I and N, may really have been adopted by " Vincenzio," the only one of his sons known to have assisted. He succeeded M Giorgio in the fabrique, where he was generally known as M Cencio. Brancaleoni states that he worked with his father till 1536, when he married and set up for himself. There is little doubt that although M Giorgio may himself have occasionally applied the lustre pigments with his own brush to the pieces painted by MAIOLICA. I25 other artists at other places, the majority of those so enriched were executed by his son or assistants. M. Darcel thinks that this practice did not begin earlier than 1525, in which view we are inclined to agree. Under division F. will be found works of this kind, among which the more interesting at South Kensington are no. 8886, a fine portrait plate ; 4726 having the painter's date and mark, and that of him who lustred it; the very remarkable plaque 520, the work of Orazio Fontana, with the monogram of Giorgio ; and the small plate 8907, dated in lustre colour as late as 1549. The last division G. contains works ascribed to him, and examples of the decadence of the lustred wares. Before closing our observations on the splendid products of this abundant pottery, we will refer to several marks which occur on pieces in all probability made and painted there but some of which we are unable to explain. A plate with bust portrait of a warrior, 126 MAIOLICA. in the collection of M. Meurnier, of Paris, having four coats of arms on the border and the letters Y. A. E., is inscribed on the face with the name " Gabriel . da . Gubbio." This doubtless is a portrait plate, and the letters may allude to the families or indi- viduals whose arms are blazoned. " Gualdo " is said to be in- scribed on a brilliantly lustred specimen which we have failed to trace, and pieces in the Louvre have been doubtingly classed under that name by M. Darcel. A man's head, rudely sketched in lustre colours, occurs on the back of a plate in the British museum, more probably an artist's whim than an intentional mark. The letters MR combined occur on a lustred piece, perhaps a monogram of M. Prestino. The letter P, variously formed, may also probably be his initial. About 1560-70 the use of the lustre pigments would seem to have been almost discontinued ; the secret of their proper com- position and manipulation was lost during the general decline of Italian artistic pottery, and the death of Guid' Ubaldo II. in 1574 was the " coup-de-gra.ce " to the already much deteriorated wares of the duchy. Those beautiful colours, known to the Italians as " rubino," " cangiante," " madreperla," " a reverbero," and to the French as " reflet metallique," " nacreY' &c. have been to a certain extent reproduced. Unfortunately many pieces made in the manufactory at Doccia have, after chipping and scratching, been palmed upon , unwary amateurs as ancient specimens by unprincipled dealers at Florence and elsewhere. Some of these modern examples are in the ceramic gallery at South Kensington. The most successful reproduction of the famous lustre has however been made at Gubbio itself by an able young chemist and artist, Luigi Carocci. Some of his productions are excellent, though far from having those artistic qualities so apparent in the finer specimens of maestro Giorgio's work. Although there can be little doubt that CASTEL DURANTE was one of the earliest sites of the manufacture of enamelled pottery MAJOLICA. 127 in Italy, as well as one of the most fruitful not only of produce but of those potters who in their own city, and at other establish- ments founded by them in various parts of Italy, spread the fame of the Durantine wares and the Durantine artists throughout Europe, it is remarkable that so few pieces have descended to us, upon which the names of their authors are recorded, or of the " boteghe " in which they were produced. Long lists are given by Raffaelli and other writers, but to identify the works of their hands is generally denied us, from the absence of signed examples by which their style can be known. From Castel Durante came the Pelliparii who on establishing themselves at the capital city of the duchy took the name of Fontana, to which is attached some of the greatest triumphs of their art. " Francesco," the able painter who probably worked at Urbino and afterwards at Monte Bagnolo near Perugia, was as he styled himself " Durantino." A new life seems to have been given to artistic pottery in Venice by the immigration of a Durantine artist Francesco del Vasaro in 1545 ; and even later in the history, when the independence of the duchy was oppressed and local patronage had waned, another potter, M Diomede Durante, tried his fortune at Rome. Others went to France, Flanders, and Corfu, spreading the art which attained important development at Nevers, at Lyons, and other French centres. Castel Durante, which rose from the ruins of Castel Ripense in the thirteenth century, took the appellation of Urbania under the reign and in compliment to her native Pope, Urban VIII. It is now a small dull town on the banks of the Metauro, on the post- road from Urbino to Borgo San Sepolcro, and about thirteen Italian miles distant from the former city. The alluvial banks and deposits of the river furnished the material for her pottery. Signer Raffaelli, in his valuable " Memorie," surmises that the manufacture of glazed pottery, as an art, was introduced at the time when monsignor Durante built a " Castello " at the badia of St. Cristoforo at Cerreto on the Metauro, in 1284, as a place of 128 MAJOLICA. security for the Guelphs. Seventy years afterwards in 1361 the then deceased maestro Giovanni dai Bistugi of Castel Durante is referred to, who probably was so named to distinguish him from the workers in glazed ware. This glazed ware was doubtless the ordinary lead glazed pottery or " mezza " ware, which preceded the use of that with stanniferous enamel and does not, as M. Darcel would suggest, afford any proof that the use of this enamel was known here before its application or stated discovery by Luca della Robbia. At that time even these lead glazed wares were little known, and it was not till 1300 that they seem to have become more generally adopted. Thenceforward their manufac- ture continued, for in 1364 a work is mentioned on the bank of the torrent Maltempo at " Pozzarelli," perhaps so named from the pits dug for extracting the loam. The early wares were coarse, painted with coats of arms and half figures, the flesh being left white and the dress in gay colours. In 1500 both the "mezza" and the enamelled wares, as well as the " sgraffio " work, were made. The beautiful " amatoria " plate which we engrave was about this date, and shows the beginning of a style of decoration which afterwards prevailed in a more developed form at this fabrique. The manufacture was at its perfection about 1525 and 1530, and continued to produce good wares even till 1580. It would appear that the great artists only painted the more im- portant subject of the piece, leaving the ornamentation to be finished by the pupils and assistants. Piccolpasso informs us that the earth or loam gathered on the banks of the Metauro, near Castel Durante, is of superior quality for the manufacture of pottery. A variety called " celestrina " was used for making the seggers, " astucci," when mixed with the "terra rossa ;" but for the finer class of work the loam deposited by the river which when washed was called "bianco allattato," and when of a blue shade of colour, was reserved for the more important pieces. The turnings of this variety mixed with the shavings of woollen cloth were used to attach the handles and MAIOLICA. 129 other moulded ornaments, and was known as "barbatina." The red pigment of Faenza, called " vergiliotto " was not used at Castel Durante. We presume this colour to be that ochreous red employed for heightening and shading the draperies, (fee. by the painters of the Fontana fabrique at Urbino, and that of Lanfranco at Pesaro, and some others ; if so, the absence or presence of it would be useful as evidence in determining the origin of a piece. Signer Raffaelli thinks that many of the wares generally known as of Urbino were so called from the province, and frequently included those which were really the produce of Castel Durante. Passeri also speaks in high commendation of the Durantine wares, and Pozzi states that it was the rival of and onlv second to 1 30 MAIOLICA. Faenza in the quality of its productions. The fatal blow to this branch of industry was the death of the last duke, Francesco Maria II. in 1631, when there being no longer a court the trade declined, money became scarce, and the artists emigrated. Of signed examples of the wares of Castel Durante, the earliest piece known is the beautiful bowl belonging to Mrs. H. T. Hope which was exhibited in the Loan collection. The ground of this piece is of an intense dark and rich blue, entirely covered with a decoration of grotesques, among which occurs a shield of arms of the Delia Rovere family surmounted by the papal tiara and the keys, proving it to have been made for pope Julius II.; trophies of books, festoons of drapery and, above, a boy angel holding a " veronica " or napkin impressed with the face of the Saviour. At the sides other trophies, satyrs, cupids, and inter- laced foliage are richly and harmoniously disposed, among which are two labels inscribed respectively " Iv. II, Pon. Max" and " Tu . es . sacerdos . I eter" " In the design and execution of the painting," says Mr. -Robinson, in his catalogue of that famous collection, " splendour of colour, and perfection of enamel glaze, this magnificent piece is a triumph of the art." On the same occasion Mr. Morland exhibited a piece by the same hand, and we think we recognize variations of the same manner in two examples now in the South Kensington museum, nos. 1728 and In the rich and even quality of the glaze, the tendency to that form of decoration known as " a candeliere " (as in the vase engraved), mixed grotesques, trophies 01 musical instruments, and cupids, in a style of painting which is free and at the same time firm and sure, and in the full yet soft colouring, we see in Mrs. Hope's bowl a commencement of what became a very general manner in the decoration of the Durantine wares. Of eleven years later we have the pharmacy jars which must have formed portions of a large and important service, one of which is in the British museum and another in the South Kensing- MAIOLICA. 131 ton. The signature on the British museum jar states, " Ne la botega