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 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
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. 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 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 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 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 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 glove 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 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
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 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 smoke of the burning fuel (rosemary or gorse) was
allowed to play upon them long enough to drive the metallic films
(silver or copper) into the already-fired glaze.[17]
_Collections._--The Victoria and Albert Museum contains perhaps the
most widely representative collection in the world, especially as at
the present time the pieces of the Salting and Pierpont Morgan
collections are on 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 Oxford (Fortnum
collection, &c.) are also valuable and contain some remarkable
examples. The Cluny Museum, the Louvre and the museum at Sèvres have
fine collections; while noteworthy pieces are to be found in the
Ceramic Museum at Limoges. In Germany the museum at Brunswick contains
one of the largest collections known, but many inferior and doubtful
examples. Berlin, Munich, Vienna and St Petersburg have noteworthy
collections. In Italy, the Bargello at Florence and the museums of
Venice, Milan, Turin, Faenza, Pesaro, Urbino, Rome and Naples all have
collections, whilst interesting examples of local manufactures are to
be found in many of the smaller Italian towns. The American museums,
especially those in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, have some fine
examples.
LITERATURE.--F. Argnani, _La Ceramiche et maioliche faentine_ (Faenza,
1889 and 1903); D. Bonghi, _Intorno alle Majoliche di Castelli_
(Naples, 1856); Professor Douglas, "Siena," in the _Nineteenth
Century_, September 1900; Hensel, _Essai sur la majolique_ (Paris,
1836); G.I. Montanari, _Majoliche dipinte nella collezione del N.S.C.
Domenico Mazza_ (Pesaro, 1836); L. Frati, _Di un insigna raccolta di
majoliche_ (Bologna, 1844); also _Di un pavimento in majolica_
(Bologna, 1853); J.C. Robinson, _Italian Sculpture of the Middle Ages_
(London, 1862); E. Darcel, _Musée du Louvre: Notice des faïences
peintes_; Drury E. Fortnum, _Contribution to the History of Pottery_
(London, 1868); Delange, _Recueil de faïences italiennes du XV^e au
XVII^e siècle_ (Paris, 1869); M. Meurer, _Italienische Maiolika
Fliesen_ (Berlin); E. Molinier, _Les Majoliques italiennes en Italie_
(Paris, 1883), also _La Céramique italienne au XV^e siècle_ (Paris,
1888); C. Piccolpasso, _I tre libri dell' arte del Vasajo_, Castel
Durante 1548 (original MS.) and translations by C. Popelyn, Paris,
1841 and 1860, also Italian editions of Rome and Milan; V. Lazari,
_Notizia della raccolta Correr_ (Venice, 1859); Drury E. Fortnum, _A
Descriptive Catalogue of the Majolica in the South Kensington Museum_
(London, 1873); Beckwith, _Majolica and Faience_ (New York, 1877); G.
Corona, _La Ceramica_ (Milan, 1878); G. Vanzolini, _Istoria delle
fabbriche di majoliche metaurensi_ (Pesaro, 1879); A. Genolini,
_Majoliche italiane_ (Milan, 1881); Mely, _La Céramique italienne_
(Paris, 1884); J.E. Jacobsthal, _Süd-italienische Fliesen_ (Berlin,
1886); Bertolotti, _Figulini, fonditori, e scultori_ (Milan, 1890); H.
Wallis, _Italian Ceramic Art_ (1897), _The Oriental Influence on the
Ceramic Art of the Italian Renaissance_ (1900), _The Art of the
Precursors_ (1901), _The Majolica Pavements of the Fifteenth Century_
(1902), _Oak-leaf Jars: A Fifteenth Century Italian Ware_ (1903), _The
Albarello_ (1904), also _Seventeen Plates by Nicola Fontana_ (1905),
and _Italian Ceramic Art: Figure Designs_ (1905); Tesorone, _L'Antico
Pavimento delle Logge di Raffaello in Vaticano_ (Naples, 1891);
Columba, _Il "Quos Ego" di Raffaello_ (Palermo, 1895); Drury E.
Fortnum, _Majolica_ (London, 1896); also _Fortnum Collection in the
Oxford Museum_ (London, 1896); O. von Falke, _Majolika_ (Berlin,
1896); also _Sammlung R. Zschille: Katalog der italienischen
Majoliken_ (Leipzig, 1899); Antaldi Santinelli, _Museo di Pesaro_
(Pesaro, 1897); De Mauri, _L'Amatore di Majolica_ (Milan, 1898); E.
Hannover, _De Spanske-Mauriske, og de forste Italienske Fayence_
(Copenhagen, 1906). (R. L. H.; W. B.*)