Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
MEDIEVAL AND LATER ITALIAN
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: MEC-MIC
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:MEDIEVAL AND LATER See also:ITALIAN POTTERY
Little is known of the See also:potter's See also:art in See also:Italy after the fall of the See also:Roman See also:empire till the 13th See also:century. The traditions of the Roman potters appear to have been gradually lost, leaving behind only sufficient skill to make See also:rude crocks for domestic use and to coat them, if required, with a crude yellowish See also:lead glaze sometimes stained to a vivid See also:green with See also:copper See also:oxide. Applied See also:ornament of roughly modelled See also:clay and scratched designs were the See also:chief embellishments of such wares, which were of the same class as the medieval pottery of See also:Great See also:Britain and the See also:north of See also:Europe. In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, contact with See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Syria, See also:Egypt- and See also:Spain, where ceramic skill had been highly See also:developed in fresh directions, as we have seen, introduced into Italy as well as the See also:rest of Europe those See also:superior wares characterized by a See also: Nor has its practice ever ceased in Italy, for through all the times
See also:Kensington Museum.)
when painted majolica was the ware of the wealthy, this earlier and humbler pottery was used by those who could not afford the former; and the gaily-coloured later wares of this kind have a See also:fine decorative quality of their own. From the See also:depth beneath the See also:present See also:soil at which fragments of this ware have been disinterred, it is obvious that the method was widely practised in early times, and no simpler glazed wares are known except those covered all over with green, yellow or See also: The colours used for the rude See also:painting were oxide of copper and oxide of See also:manganese, and the final glaze, which is generally thin and often imperfectly fused, seems to have been based on the alkaline glazes of the nearer See also:East. The specimens so assiduously recovered by See also:Professor Aragnani, some of which, or similar wares, are to be found in the Louvre, the See also:British and the Victoria and Albert museums, are typical of the rude work out of which, by a See also:fuller knowledge of See also:Spanish methods, the painted majolica See also:grew. 3. Majolica.—For the last three centuries the word majolica has been used to signify an Italian ware with a fine but comparatively soft See also:buff body, coated with an opaque tin-enamel of varying degrees of whiteness and purity, on which a painted decoration was laid and fired. In the later pictorial wares, a fine coating of transparent alkaline glaze was fired over the painting to soften the colours—really to See also:varnish them. The word itself appears to have been derived from the name of the See also:island See also:Majorca, and was originally applied by the Italians to the lustred wares of Spain which were largely imported into Italy, probably arriving in See also:ships that called at or hailed from Majorca, as we do not believe that the ware was actually made in that island. That the See also:secret of the tin-glaze, which is the essential feature of Italian majolica, was known in Italy in the 13th century is practically proved; and there is both See also:literary and archaeological See also:proof of its use there in the 14th. Mention of it is made in the See also:Margarita Preciosa published at See also:Pola by See also:Pierre Le Bon in 1336, and the well-known See also:jug, bearing the arms of Astorgio I., discovered under the Manfredi See also:palace at Faenza, must have been made shortly after 1393. Its development marched See also:side by side with that of the mezza-majolica, until it practically superseded the latter for painted wares in the 15th century; but the earliest examples have little more than an archaeological See also:interest, and it was only after the last See also:decade of the quattrocento or the first of the cinquecento that it blossomed into an See also:artistic creation. In its See also:prime the production of majolica was confined to a very small See also:part of Italy. See also:Bologna on the north, See also:Perugia to the See also:south, See also:Siena on the See also:west, and the Adriatic to the east, roughly enclose the See also:district in which See also:lie Faenza, Forli, See also:Rimini, See also:Pesaro, Cafaggiolo, See also:Urbino, See also:Castel See also:Durante, See also:Gubbio, Perugia and Siena. Towards the middle of the 16th century See also:Venice on the one See also:hand, and in the 17th and 18th centuries the Ligurian factories at See also:Genoa, Albissola and See also:Savona, made majolica of the later decadent styles, while, at the end of the 17th and in the early part of the 18th centuries, the See also:southern See also:town of See also:Castelli, near See also:Naples, produced a ware which closes the period of artistic majolica. 4. Lustred Majolica.—This brilliant See also:species of Italian pottery (to which alone Piccolpasso applied the name majolica) seems to have been mainly produced at Deruta and Gubbio, though experiments were made at Cafaggiolo and probably at Faenza and Siena. Considering how much the Italian majolist owed to the Spanish-Moorish potter, it is remarkable that this beautiful method of decoration should have made so tardy an appearance, for the earliest specimens do not appear to be much earlier than
the end of the 15th century, and the process was apparently abandoned by the middle of the 16th. The lustre wares of Deruta, probably the earliest made in Italy, have strongly-marked See also:affinities with their Spanish prototypes; the earlier examples are hardly to be distinguished from Spanish wares, and to the last the ware remained technically like the earlier ware, though with perfectly Italian decorative treatment. Yet the best examples of Deruta See also:silver lustre have a quality of See also:tone that has never been surpassed; a colour resembling a See also:wash of very transparent See also:umber bearing a delicate nacreous film of the most See also:tender iridescence. The Gubbio lustre is best known to us through the See also:works of See also:Maestro Giorgio, whose. distinctive lustre is a magnificent See also:ruby-red unlike any other. In all See also:probability the lustre process was so quickly abandoned on the fine painted majolica, because the increasing efforts to make a " picture " were discounted by so uncertain a process. When one of the later majolica painters had spent See also:weeks on the decoration of some See also:vase or dish, with an elaborate See also:composition of carefully See also:drawn figures, it was not likely that he would care to expose it to any risks that could be avoided. The risks of the lustre process were inordinately great—Piccolpasso says, " Frequently only six pieces were See also:good out of a See also:hundred "—so that its use was relegated only to inferior wares, and then the process was relinquished and forgotten until its rediscovery in the second half of the 19th century.
The See also:history of the development of these See also:noble wares is by no means clear, nor is it always certain what part was played by each town in the successive inventions of technical methods, decoration and colouring, so that it is better, in such a See also:general See also:sketch as this, to treat the subject in its broadest features only. In the earlier painted wares the only colours used were manganese-purple and a transparent copper-green as on the mezza-majolica! but early in the 15th century See also:cobalt-blue was added to the See also:palette, and, later on, the strong yellow antimoniate of lead, mixed with See also:iron. The decorations at this period were largely influenced by the wares imported from Persia, Syria, Egypt and Spain, specimens of which were so prized as to be used for the decoration of See also: The lustre of the Saracenic wares was not yet under-stood, but its place was taken first by manganese and afterwards by yellow. The designs were chiefly conventional See also:flower-patterns in the Persian or Moorish See also:style, arabesques, and floral scrolls, the ground being filled at times with those tiny spirals, scrolls and dots to which the Eastern potters were so partial. Figures, human and See also:animal, were introduced either among the formal ornament or only sundered from it by panels, of which the outlines often followed the contours of the central design (see the early 15th-century Faenza piece, Plate VI.). The figures were, in fact, drawn to conform to the outline of the vessel, and not the vessel made to display the figure-subject as in the majolica of the succeeding century. The earliest dated example of this period is the See also:pavement laid down in the See also:Caracciolo See also:chapel in the church of See also:San Giovanni a Carbonara, in Naples, about 1440. Specimens of these tiles may be seen in the British Museum, and from their style it has been suggested that they were made by some Spanish potters brought over to Naples by See also:Queen See also:Joanna, who was of the royal house of See also:Aragon. To this period also have been referred the large ovoid jars made to contain drugs or confections, and decorated with bold scrolls of formal See also:oak leaves enclosing spirited figures of men or animals, or heraldic devices. These are characterized by a rich blue colour generally piled up in palpable See also:relief and sometimes verging on black; the outlines are usually in manganese, and transparent green is used for details and occasionally even as a ground colour. This ware has been definitely assigned to Florence on what seem very inadequate grounds, and it is better to speak of it simply as Tuscan. Then, essentially Italian ornament began to assert itself, and it redounds to the See also:credit of the Italian majolist that he soon freed himself from repeating the styles of the wares from which he obtained his methods, and produced a distinctive type of ornament of his own. He revelled in patterns with bold floral scrolls, or those based on peacocks' feathers (see fig. 45), andthen he advanced to concentric bands of painted ornament, borrowed from classic art yet breathing the true spirit of the See also:Renaissance; while See also:cable See also:borders, chequer and See also:scale patterns, bands of stiff radiating leaves, festoons of See also:fruit and See also:flowers, zigzags and pyramidal scrolls occupied nearly the whole surface or framed an armorial or emblematic central subject. Figure-subjects occur with in-creasing frequency as the century advanced; Madonnas and other sacred subjects, portraits, and, occasionally, See also:groups' FIG. 45.—Early Faenza plate, with of figures after the early See also:peacock-See also:feather design, in blues, yellow Italian masters, or scenes anduseum See also:orange-red. (Victoria and Albert borrowed from the first M illustrated See also:editions of the See also:classics, gradually encroach on the conventional borders and occupy more and more of the surface of the piece. The provenance of these 15th-century pieces still remains uncertain—Faenza, Forli, Florence, Siena and other places offering See also:rival claims, but there is no doubt that from the earliest times Faenza was the most fertile centre of their manufacture, and almost all the motives of the quattrocento wares are found on fragments discovered there or on examples that can be traced to Faventine factories. It is customary to treat the enamelled terra-cottas of Luca della Robbia, the great Florentine sculptor (1399-1482), and his followers, See also:Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia and other members of the See also:family, as belonging rather to the domain of See also:sculpture than of pottery, and this is right, for there is nothing certainly known of the work of this great sculptor which connects it with painted majolica. The old theory that Luca invented the tin-glaze is long since exploded; what he did was to use coloured glazes made with a basis of tin-enamel on his boldly modelled terracottas—a very different thing,—and it is by no means certain that he was the first to do even that. The Victoria and Albert Museum is extraordinarily rich in della Robbia ware of every kind; and one may see there these beautifully modelled figures in high relief covered with pure white tin-enamel, set in aback-ground of slatey blue or rich manganese purple and framed in wreaths of flowers and fruit which are coloured with blue, green, purple and sometimes yellow. There are See also:altar vases too, of classic shape with See also:low relief ornament, covered with the same See also:peculiar blue glaze; these are sometimes furnished with modelled fruit and flowers; and finally there is the rare set of roundels painted on the See also:flat with figure-subjects typifying the months; but the attribution of these remains doubtful, and their method is not that of painted majolica. A remarkable development took place at the beginning of the 16th century, and in the See also:forty succeeding years the highest perfection of manipulative skill, both in potting and painting, was attained. Artistically regarded, the elaborate and detailed methods of painting then adopted are too much allied to See also:fresco-painting to be considered as See also:fit treatment for enamelled clay; but this view was certainly not accepted at the See also:time, nor is it subscribed to by many modern collectors; yet, regarded as decorated pottery, the 15th-century majolica, simpler and more conventional in design and treatment, is eminently preferable. The ruling families of northern Italy, who now took the See also:industry under their See also:personal patronage, clearly inclined to the opposite view and spared no expense to provide subjects for their tONSIORW I4Sc Early Faenza Potter's See also:mark. Late Faenza Potter's mark.
pot-painters. During the first two decades the See also:influence of Faenza was See also:paramount, and though the encroachments of purely pictorial motives are clearly indicated on the wares, See also:room was still found for ornamental patterns. The broad rims of the dishes were covered with beautiful See also:arabesque designs, frequently including See also:grotesque figures, masks, dolphins and cherubs (see the Faenza Casa Pirota piece, 1525, Plate VI.). Sometimes reserved in the white on a dark blue ground and shaded with See also:light blue and yellow, sometimes traced in dark blue on a paler See also:grey-blue glaze (called berettino) or painted in darker tints on a ground of orange or full yellow, the Faventine arabesques See also:form a conspicuous feature of the early wares of this century. See also:Honeysuckle patterns and interlaced lines drawn in pure white on a toned tin-enamel (white on white or sopra-bianco decoration) commonly appear on the sides of the deep See also:wells of the dishes, while in the centre is a single figure, a coat of arms, or a small figure-subject. A similar treatment, without the sopra-bianco, was accorded to the fruit-dishes, shallow See also:bowls on low feet, &c., with moulded gadroons or scalloped sides, which are generally attributed to Faenza or Castel Durante. The workshops of Siena were also noted for delicately painted grotesques and arabesques, with a rich brownish-yellow or deep black ground. At Gubbio, too, the " grotesque " decoration was practised with marked success. Other developments of this style are the " a candelieri " designs, in which grotesques were symmetrically arranged See also:round some central subject, such as a See also:candelabrum or vase, and " a trofei " in which trophies of arms, musical See also:instruments, and other See also:objects were symmetrically disposed, or arranged in studied disarray throughout the design; these patterns are generally associated with the wares of Castel Durante and Deruta. Lovers' gifts, dishes in which the whole space is occupied by a portrait bust of a girl or See also:man, with the name and a complimentary See also:adjective inscribed on a ribbon in the background, were common to Faenza, Castel Durante and many other factories. Elaborate figure-subjects also were attempted early in the century at Faenza and with no little success, as may be seen from a dish in the British Museum, which is entirely occupied by the See also:scene of the See also:death of the Virgin, after a See also:print by See also: In the third decade of the century the style affected at Urbino superseded that of Faenza. The majolica painter's palette was now See also:complete; in addition to the See also:primitive blue, manganese-purple, transparent green and yellow, we find black, white, orange, greens of varying shades, brown, and a great number of intermediate tints obtained by mixing the See also:standard colours. All the colours of the majolica of the best perias were painted on the tin-enamel before the final See also:glazing, and were capable of See also:standing the full See also:heat of the See also:fire. Such a thing as painting in enamels on the finished ware and refiring them at a See also:lower heat was unknown before the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century. A true red colour seems to have been beyond the See also:power of most of the Italian majolists, and was only attained at Faenza, and with less complete success at Cafaggiolo; the famous red of the See also:Turkish pottery behaves very indifferently on tin-enamel. In the Urbino style, which now be- came general, the ware was given over entirely to pictorial subjects, scenes from history or See also:romance, scriptural and mythological, copied from the com- positions of the Italian painters and usually set in a background of Italian landscape. Guidobaldo II., See also:duke of Urbino, spared no pains to develop this phase of the art; the cartoons of See also:Raphael, engraved by Marc See also:Antonio and others, were placed at the disposal of the pot-painters, as well as the paintings of See also:Michelangelo, Giulio Romano, Battista Franco, Rosso See also:Rossi, See also:Perugino, Parmeggiano and many more, and these, together with engravings by See also:Agostino Venetiano, Marco Dente, Enea See also:Vico and others, were copied, with more or less fidelity, on the majolica. Some of the painters, as, for instance, Xanto Avelli, were eclectic in their tastes and made up their subjects by taking a figure here or there from various pictures. Thus of three figures on a plate in the British Museum, painted with the See also:Dream of See also:Astyages, one is borrowed from Raphael and another from See also:Mantegna. These " istoriati " wares reached their See also:zenith at Urbino between the years 1530 and 1560, when the workshops of the See also:Fontana family were in full activity; but their popularity was very general, and skilful painters at many other towns produced specimens that it is hard to distinguish from those of Urbino. Baldasara Manara was a prolific punter in this style at Faenza; Pesaro and Castel Durante were little behind Urbino in the skill of their artists, the Lanfranchi family in the former town having a well-deserved reputation, while the founders of the Fontana factories learnt their art in the latter; and a few pieces of considerable merit See also:bear the name of Rimini as their place of origin. There will always remain a large number of specimens of majolica which cannot be assigned with certainty to any particular factory, partly because the same style of painting was in See also:vogue at many places at the same time, and partly because of the itinerant propensities of many of the painters, whose signed works prove that they moved from place to place to practise their art. There are, however, a few prominent artists whose See also:touch is sufficiently well known from the examples that bear their signatures to enable us to classify a considerable proportion of the finest pieces. First of these is Niccola Pellipario, the founder of the Fontana family, who moved from Castel Durante to Urbino in 1519, and worked at the latter place in the factory of his son, Guido Fontana. There is little -doubt that he was the painter of the famous service in the Correr Museum at Venice, which marks the transition from the style of Faenza to that of Urbino, and his See also:free figure-See also:drawing, the See also:oval faces with strongly marked classical features, the peculiarly drawn knees, the careful landscapes and the characteristic balls of See also:cloud are easily recognized in quite a number of pieces in the British Museum (see the Gonzago See also:Este piece, Plate VI.). His See also:pupil, who frequently signed his name in full, Xanto Avelli da See also:Rovigo, was one of the foremost Urbino painters, and his work is characterized by bold colouring and fine figure-drawing, with a' marked fondness for yellowish flesh tints. But Niccola's See also:grandson, See also:Orazio Fontana (see example, Plate VI.), was perhaps the most celebrated exponent of the pure Urbino style, and his free drawing and soft harmonious colouring, in which a brilliant blue is usually conspicuous, are unequalled by any other majolica painter of the period. Certain characteristic wares of Faenza have already been noted. Those with the grey-blue (berettino) glaze were principally made at the factory called Casa Pirota, though inferior imitations were also produced at Padua, and a blue glaze of paler tint was largely used at Venice. Dolphins are a frequent See also:motive in the arabesque ornaments of the same Faventine workshop, and many of the wares are marked with a circle divided by a See also:cross and containing a dot in one of the quarters. A See also:capital P crossed with a See also:line or paraph is another Faventine mark, and a somewhat similar See also:monogram, with an S added to the upper part, is found in the wares of Cafaggiolo. It has already been stated that a red colour is peculiar to Faenza and in an inferior and browner tint to Cafaggiolo; it was used, according to Piccolpasso, at the factory of Vergiliotto in the former place. At Cafaggiolo, the factory of the See also:Medici family, many fine pieces were painted, mostly in the Faventine style; a deep blue, heavily applied and showing the marks of the See also:brush, was freely used in backgrounds, an& delicate See also:running See also:leaf scrolls in paler blue and reminiscent of Urbino Potter's mark. Venetian Majolica Potter's mark. Persian style often appear on the Cafaggiolo wares (see example, Plate VI.). Not a little can be learnt from the ornament on the See also:reverse sides of the dishes and plates; those of Faenza and Siena are richly decorated with scale patterns and concentric bands; those of Cafaggiolo and Venice are either See also:left See also:blank or have one or two rings of yellow. A few pre-eminently beautiful dishes, with central figure subjects of See also:miniature-like finish in delicate landscapes with See also:poplar trees in a peculiar mannered style, are probably the work of M. Benedetto of Siena. Borders of arabesques with black or deep orange ground belong to the same factory and were perhaps decorated by the same hand. The dishes covered, except for a few small medallions, with interlaced oak branches (" a cerquate " decoration), are no doubt the productions of Castel Durante; and a certain class of large dishes with figure subjects in blue on a toned blue glaze, and sometimes with formal ornaments in relief, are of undisputed Venetian origin. Another phase of majolica decoration began about the middle of the 16th century and synchronized with the decline of the pictorial style. The figure subjects were relegated to central panels or entirely replaced by small medallions, and the rest of the surface covered with fantastic figures among floral scrolls, inspired by Raphael's grotesques painted on the walls of the Loggie in the Vatican. The prevailing tone of this ornament was yellow or orange, and the tin-enamel ground, which is always more or less impure in colour on Italian pottery, was washed over with a pure See also:milk-white, known as bianco di See also:Ferrara or bianco allatato, said to have been invented by See also:Alphonso I., duke of Ferrara, who took an active interest in his private factory founded at Ferrara, and managed by potters from Faenza and Urbino. The new style .flourished at Urbino, Pesaro and Ferrara; at the first-named particularly in the workshops of the Patanazzi family, and lasted far into the 17th century. But the majolica was now in full decline, partly through the falling off of princely patronage, and partly, perhaps, owing to a reaction in favour of See also:Chinese See also:porcelain, which was becoming more plentiful and better known in Europe. The manufacture, however, never entirely ceased, and revivals of the old style were attempted at the end of the 17th century by Ferdinando Maria Campori of Siena, who copied Raphael's and Michelangelo's compositions, and by the families of See also:Gentile and Grue at Naples and Castelli. The majolica of Castelli is distinguished by the lightness of the ware, good technique, and harmonious but See also:pale and rather weak colouring; it continued into the 18th century. A coarse and inferior ware was made at Padua and See also:Monte Lupo; and the factories of Faenza were still active, producing, among other kinds, a pure white ware with moulded scallops and gadroons. The industry continued to flourish in Venice and the north. Black ware with gilt decoration was a Venetian product of the 17th century, and at Savona and Genoa blue painted ware in See also:imitation of Chinese blue and white porcelain made its appearance. In the 18th century a new departure was made in the introduction of enamel painting over the glaze, a method borrowed from porcelain; but this process was common to all the See also:faience factories of Europe at the time, and though it was widely practised in Italy no See also:special distinction was attained in any particular factory. In our own days imitations of the 16th century wares continue to be made in the factories of Ginori, Cantigalli and others, not excepting the lustred majolica of Gubbio and Deruta; but, compared with the old pieces, the modern copies are heavy to handle, stiff in drawing, suspiciously wanting in the quality of the colours and the purity of the final glaze which distinguish the work of the best period.
Lus/red Wares.—The lustred wares of Deruta have marked
characteristics, and, though differing in actual treatment from the Hispano-Moresque, their appearance is eloquent in favour of such a derivation. The most characteristic examples are large dishes and plateaux, thickly made and with the enamel on the upper See also:face only, the back having a lead glaze. They are often decorated (see fig. 46) with a single figure or bust in the centre (with or without an 'inscribed ribbon), which is usually set against a dark blue background which covers only half the See also: In spite of its archaic appearance, the Deruta lustred wares are scarcely older than the 16th century, and the style was continued as late as the second half of that century. Deruta pottery was not always lustred, and some of the pieces signed by the painter El Frate, who flourished between 1541 and 1554, are without the lustre pigment, though showing the heavy blue outlines of the lustred wares. The lustred majolica of Gubbio owes its celebrity almost entirely to the work of one man, Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, who came thither from Pavia, with his See also:brothers See also:Salimbene and Giovanni, and obtained citizenship in 1498. His earliest efforts were in the direction of sculpture, and some of his reliefs in the style of della Robbia are still in existence; indeed the earliest dated piece of lustred majolica attributed to him is a See also:plaque of 1501, with the figure of St See also:Sebastian in relief, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is not known whence he learnt the secret of the beautiful transparent ruby lustre peculiar to Gubbio. A red or rosy lustre is found in both Persian and Hispano-Moresque wares, and no doubt the process was learnt from some Moslem potter and developed by Giorgio to unusual perfection. See also:Golden, yellow, brown and opalescent lustres were also freely used at Gubbio, the ruby being only sparingly applied. Finished painted pieces were sent from other factories to receive the addition of lustre at Gubbio, but these can almost always be distinguished from the true Gubbio wares, in which the lustre is an integral part of the decoration. Apart from the lustred enrichment, the majolica of Gubbio has few distinctive qualities, for its styles were various and almost all borrowed (see fig. 47). The archaic See also:taste of Deruta, the arabesques and grotesques of Later Cafaggiolo Potter's mark. See also:Turin Potter's mark. Savona Potter's marks. Faenza and Castel Durante, and in a lesser degree the " istorialo " style of Urbino, reigned in turn. Perhaps the most characteristic paintings of Maestro Giorgio are the central medallions of cups and deep dishes enclosing a single figure of a See also:child or a See also:cupid in See also:grisaille. Giorgio's larger figure compositions; if indeed his See also:signature in lustre may be taken to imply that he painted the designs as well as lustred them, show great inequality, some rising to a very high standard—as the dish with " the Three See also:Graces " in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the " See also:Bath of See also:Nymphs " in the See also:Wallace collection—while in others the figure drawing is quite inferior. The arabesques and grotesques on the Gubbio wares are usually of great merit. There are a few known pieces of unlustred Gubbio wares with figure subjects, painted chiefly in blue and in the style of the early Faventine artists. After 1517, when we may assume that the lustre process was thoroughly mastered, the Gubbio wares were usually signed with the See also:initials or full name of Maestro Giorgio, and a few rapidly executed scrolls in lustre completed the decorations of the reverse of the plates and dishes. The See also:master's latest signed work is dated 1541, and he died in 1552. It is probable that his See also:brother Salimbene assisted him, and Piccolpasso names his son Vincentio as possessor of the lustre secret. Possibly the latter was the painter who signed his wares with the initial N, but this conjecture rests solely on the ingenious, but unsupported notion that N is a monogram of the first three letters of the name Vincentio. Other initials, M, D, R, also occur on Gubbio plates, and the latest dated example of the ware is signed by one " Mastro Prestino " in 1557, but it has little to recommend it See also:save that it is enriched with the Gubbio lustres, which after this time entirely disappear. The old majolica shapes are briefly as follows:—among the earliest are small bowls (scodelle), often with flattened sides; jugs (boccali) with large See also:lip-spouts, and mouths pinched into See also:trefoil form; large dishes with gradually shelving sides (bacili), or with flat broad rims and deep centres; akin to these are the plateaux with a raised flat disk in the centre; small dishes with broad flat rims and deep though narrow central walls (tondini), suitable for handing a See also:wine-See also:glass or sweetmeats; flat See also:trencher-shaped plates (See also:piatti or taglieri); saucer-shaped dishes on low feet and sometimes with moulded sides (tazze or fruttieri) suitable for holding fruit. Among the vase forms ovoid shapes with See also:short necks and a pair of flat handles are common in the Tuscan wares of the 15th century; the jars for See also:confectionery, drugs, or syrups were often of the cylindrical form with graceful See also:con-See also:cave sides known as the " albarello," in shape of Eastern origin, and inname perhaps derived from the Persian el barani (a vase for drugs, &c.); other vase forms with spouts and handles were used for the same purpose; ornamental vases after classical designs (vasi a bronzi antichi) ; and in the best Urbino period a great variety of fanciful forms—ewers, vases, cisterns, shells, See also:salt-cellars, See also:ink-pots, &c., with applied masks and See also:serpentine handles, were made in the exuberant taste of the time. A complex piece of See also:furniture for the bedside of ladies in childbirth (vaso puerperale) consisted of a bowl with a See also:foot surmounted by a flat trencher on which fitted an inverted drinking-bowl (ongaresca) ; and above this again a salt-cellar with See also:cover. Many of these shapes were suited to daily use, but the richly decorated majolica was designed to adorn the walls, the credenze, table-centres and cabinets of the rich. This alone could have been the destination of the large dishes (piatti di porn pa) with rim pieces for suspension, and the smaller dishes (coppe amatorii) with portraits of See also:young men and girls and lovers' symbols; and it is inconceivable that the costly lustred wares of Gubbio or the fine madreperla dishes of Deruta were designed for anything but decorative use. The ware was in fact an See also:article produced for the wealthy in the century of Italy's See also:glory, and under no other conditions could such magnificent and expensive pieces have been made. Technical Methods.—T his is a convenient place to give an account of the methods used by the early medieval potters—(1) because they represent what had been learnt from Roman times-to the 16th century, and indeed to the introduction of modern methods, (2) because, besides all that a potter could derive from an examination of the wares, we have ample written accounts of the methods and processes followed by the Italian majolist. Mr See also:Solon has recently published an See also:epitome of the account given in Biringuccio's La Pyrotechnica (Venice, 154o), and there is the memorable MS. of Piccolpasso, a potter of Castel Durante, now in the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which, besides giving an account of the processes, contains illustrations of kilns, See also:mills, decorative motives, &c.1 1. The potter's clay was prepared from mixtures of various kinds prepared by (a) beating and picking out coarse particles, (b) mixing with See also:water, (c) passing through a See also:sieve, (d) drying again into plastic clay ready for the working potter. The essential point about the potter's clay of the best tin-enamelled wares, whether Spanish, Italian, See also:French or Dutch, is that the See also:clays are those known geologically as " marls," which contain a large percentage of carbonate of See also:lime. Such clays always fire to a pinky red or buff colour, and give a ware that is strong and yet light in substance, and on no other kind of clay does the tin-enamel display its full perfection (see See also:Deck's La Faience). The analyses of certain tin-enamelled wares are useful as showing the essential constitution of the best pottery bodies for such purposes. Della Majo lica. See also:Delft. French Robbia. Faience. See also:Silica . . . . 49'65 48.00 49'07 48'65 Alumina . . . 15.50 17.59 16.19 17.05 Lime . 22.40 20.12 18•or 19'43 See also:Magnesia. 0.17 1.17 0.82 0.27 Oxide of iron 3.70 3'75 2'82 4'33 Carbonic See also:Acid, 8.58 9.46 13.09 10.27 water, &c. . . 2. Shaping.—The vessels were either " thrown " on the potter's See also:wheel (which had remained practically unaltered from Egyptian times), or they were formed by " pressing " thin cakes of clay into moulds, made of a composition of See also:plaster (See also:gesso), See also:bone-ash and See also:marble dust. In the latter way all shapes that were not circular were made, as well as those with heavy bosses or gadroons imitated from embossed See also:metal forms. It is interesting, though not surprising, to note that for the fine later wares, the roughly thrown vases, when sufficiently dry, were recentred on the wheel or were placed in a joiner's See also:lathe and smoothed to a clean and accurate surface. The See also:Greek potters did the same, and this practice must always be followed where fine painting or See also:gilding is afterwards to be applied. In the later florid vases of the Urbino style the piece was built up of thrown parts and moulded parts (handles, masks, spouts, &c.), lilted together with slip when they were dry enough to be safely handled, and then retouched by the modeller or vase-maker, a method followed to this See also:day for elaborate pieces of pottery or porcelain. 3. The Glaze.—The white enamel which formed at first both the glaze and the ground for painting upon—bianco, as it was called—was prepared in a complicated way. A clear potash glass (marzacotto) was made by melting together clean siliceous See also:sand (rena) and the potash salt left as the lees of wine (feccia). This corresponds to the alkaline glaze of the Egyptians with the substitution of potash for soda. Such a glaze alone would have been useless to the Italian potter, and accordingly the bianco was made by melting together 1 Piccolpasso, I tre libri dell' arte del Vasajo, dated 1548. It has been several times translated both into modern Italian and French. The See also:English reader will find an excellent abstract of this interesting MS. in the volumes on Majolica by See also:Drury E. Fortnum. AA14-9.T-1 Gubbio Potters' marks. See also:thirty parts of marzacotto and twelve parts of lead and tin ashes. The white enamel as used was therefore a mixed silicate of lead and potash rendered opaque with oxide of tin. . 4. See also:Pigments (colori) were compounded from metallic oxides or earths; the yellow, from antimoniate of lead, which was mixed with oxide of iron to give orange; the green, from oxide of copper (the See also:turquoise tint given to the Egyptian and Syrian glazes by oxide of copper is impossible with a glaze of lead and tin) ; and the greens were made by mixing oxide of copper with oxide of See also:antimony or oxide of iron; blue, from oxide of cobalt, used in the form of a blue glass (smalto, or zaffara) ; brownish-purple, from manganese; black, from mixtures of the other colours; and the rare red, or reddish brown, of Faenza and Cafaggiolo was probably the same Armenian See also:bole that was used so magnificently by the makers of the Turkish pottery, but on the white enamel ground this colour was most treacherous and uncertain. It must be remembered that many of these colours owe their tint to the lead used in their composition, or to the grounds containing oxides of lead and tin on which they were painted. Piccolpasso describes the preparation and composition of the various colours used in his day. 5. Coperta, or transparent glaze. In the later majolica a thin coating of soft rich glaze was applied over the fired painting to give a smooth bright surface. This coperta was a soft lead glass consisting of silica (sand), 20 parts; oxide of lead, 17 parts; potash, 12 parts; and common salt, 8 parts; fused together and then finely ground in water. 6. Methods of Glazing and Decorating.—In the mezza-majolica and the early majolica it is probable that the clay vessel was dipped in the white bath to give it an envelope (invetriatura) before it was fired at all; but it must soon have become apparent that it was much better to fire first the shaped vessel until it was about as hard and brittle as a clay See also:tobacco-pipe, and then coat it with the white enamel, by dipping it into a bath or pouring the fluid material upon it. This was the practice described by Piccolpasso. A coating of white enamel, the thickness of See also:glove See also:leather, having been obtained, the piece was carefully taken by the painter, who first etched in the outline on the absorbent powdery ground, and then shaded the figures, landscapes, &c., in blue or in a mixture of blue and yellow, adding the other colours as gradated washes. The vase was then fired a second time to a heat greater than the first, so that the enamel was melted on the vessel and the colours sunk into the enamel at one and the same operation. This method of painting on the unbaked enamel demanded a bold See also:direct treatment—for alteration or retouching was impossible—and much of the vigour of the earlier designs is due to this fact. As the ware became more refined in its treatment it was See also:felt that this method did not yield a sufficiently brilliant surface, and so the painted and fired piece was coated with a film of coperta and fired again at a slightly lower temperature to make it smoother and more glossy. Still pursued by the idea of rivalling the triumphs of pictorial art, the majolist carried his methods a step farther. The white enamel coating was fired before painting, giving a glossy surface on which the painter could draw or wipe out, and so could execute outlining, tinting, or shading of the utmost delicacy. A film of coperta was then washed over the painting, and the piece was fired a third time in the cooler parts of the See also:kiln. In some instances it is not easy even for an experienced potter to decide which method has been pursued, owing to the softening of the colours. Generally we should expect that the later and more pictorial pieces had been painted on a ground of fired white enamel, and we may be absolutely certain when delicate white patterns have been " picked out " in a coloured ground. Where lustre decoration has been added to a piece of majolica it indicates, as elsewhere, the use of a special process, and a final firing at a lower heat. The lustre pigments were the same as those used on the earlier lustred wares, and these were painted over an otherwise finished piece. To obtain the lustre effect these were placed in a special kiln, so contrived that when the pots were just visibly red the See also:smoke of the burning See also:fuel (See also:rosemary or gorse) was allowed to See also:play upon them long enough to drive the metallic films (silver or copper) into the already-fired glaze.' Collections.—The Victoria and Albert Museum contains perhaps the most widely representative collection in the See also:world, especially as at the present time the pieces of the Salting and Pierpont See also:Morgan collections are on See also:exhibition there. The British Museum collection is valuable, being rich in " signed " pieces of the first quality. The Wallace collection and the Ashmolean Museum at See also:Oxford (Fortnum collection, &c.) are also valuable and contain some remarkable examples. The See also:Cluny Museum, the Louvre and the museum at Sevres have fine collections; while noteworthy pieces are to be found in the Ceramic Museum at See also:Limoges. In See also:Germany the museum at See also:Brunswick contains one of the largest collections known, but many inferior and doubtful examples. See also:Berlin, See also:Munich, See also:Vienna and St See also:Petersburg have noteworthy collections. In Italy, the Bargello at Florence and the museums of Venice, See also:Milan, Turin, Faenza, Pesaro, Urbino, See also:Rome and Naples all have collections, whilst interesting examples of local manufactures are to be found in many of the ' For a full account of the lustre process see Franchet, Comptes rendus for See also:December 1905, and W. See also:Burton, Society of Arts See also:Journal, 2846, vol. lv., 1907. V. 24smaller Italian towns. The See also:American museums, especially those in New See also:York, See also:Boston and See also:Philadelphia, have some fine examples. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] MEDIEVAL |
[next] MEDIEVAL AND MODERN |