Maiolica. C. Drury E. Fortnum

      and early in the sixteenth centuries some of the most exquisite examples of artistic decoration and of the perfection of manufacture 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 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 15th and 16th centuries, neither can we learn of any excellence attained 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 supplied 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.

       Table of Contents

      The history of the development, perfection, and decline of the ceramic art of the renaissance in Italy is so intimately connected 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 ruled 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 enlightened 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 embellishment of which he invited the leading artists of the day. A patron of all art, and a great collector, he encouraged the manufacture 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 introduced 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 “Porcellana,” a name applied at that period in Italy to the choicer description of enamelled earthenware. Passeri 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 stimulated 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 commencement of the last quarter of the 15th century many pieces painted by the artists of Pesaro, Urbino, and Castel Durante, were sent there to receive the additional enrichment of the lustre colours. Pieces may be seen in collections signed in blue by the artist Francesco Xanto and others which have been subsequently lustred at Gubbio, and again signed in the metallic pigment by the “maestro” of that botega. At Diruta also its use appears to have been extensive though not to so exclusive a degree nor on wares of such high character as at Gubbio, neither are we enabled by the possession of examples to conclude that the works or other fabriques were sent to Diruta for the additional embellishment.

      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 Lanfranco 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 Mº Ludovico was producing admirable works five years previously, and Mº Jacomo da Pesaro in 1542. A member of the Fontana family, Camillo, younger brother of the celebrated Orazio, went to Florence, and another Mº Camillo to Ferrara in 1567, by the request of the then reigning 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 Savino, is stated to have previously established himself at Antwerp.