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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 collections, 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
BY
C. DRURY E. FORTNUM, F.S.A.
WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
[Illustration]
_Published for the Committee of Council on Education_
BY
SCRIBNER, WELFORD, AND ARMSTRONG,
NEW YORK.
1876.
LIST OF WOODCUTS.
PAGE
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 81
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 Hôtel 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 Antæus 120
Plateau 121
Mark (probably of Giorgio) with paraphe 122
Marks on a plate in the British museum 123
Small tazza, “the stream of life” 124
Fac-simile of Giorgio’s mark 125
Plate, Castel Durante 129
Vase “ “ 131
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, Forlì 175
Inscription, with portrait-heads 176
Vase, Ferrara 178
Plateau, Venice 182
“ Venice 184
Vase, uncertain fabrique 185
Dish, Tuscan (?) 186
MAIOLICA.
CHAPTER I.
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 inhabitants, 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 however 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.
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 Phœnicians; 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 produce 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 Babylonia 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 nations only, enamelled
terra-cotta and glass forming articles of commercial export from Egypt
and Phœnicia to every part of the Mediterranean. Among the Egyptians and
Assyrians enamelling was used more frequently than glazing, and their
works are consequently 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 disappeared
among the Arab and Moorish races, who had retained a traditional
knowledge of the process. The application of a transparent 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 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 increasing 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 technical 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
consideration 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 (_Fayence à pâte tendre_), and Hard (_Fayence à pâte
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 the 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 mediæval 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 cooling, 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 characteristic glazing
of stanniferous or tin-glazed wares. In every case the vitreous
substance is reduced to the finest powder by mechanical 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 impermeable 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 translucent, 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 Phœnicia; 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 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, consisting of much siliceous sand, some
aluminous earth, and probably a small portion of alcali, thus rendering
it of a nature approximating 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
produce 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 apparent. 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 perfection
in Egypt, were made by the Babylonians and Assyrians.
Throughout Babylonia the sites of ancient buildings afford fragments of
glazed pottery. The glaze of those brought from Borsippa by the abbé
Beauchamp, in 1790, was analysed and found to contain 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
sarcophagi, piled one upon another to the height of forty-five feet, of
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
sixteenth 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 widely spread class of
pottery: indeed, throughout the northern and western countries lead, in
combination with glass, seems to have
[Illustration]
been the earliest and until the fifteenth century the only means known
of glazing soft pottery.
We have seen that a certain amount of lead has been found in 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 producing 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 Græco-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 appearance 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 introduced by
Greek or oriental potters into southern Italy. We learn from the monk
Theophilus that the art of decorating fictile 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 abbé 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 centuries, 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 coat through which the white “slip” or “engobe” became
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 furnaces 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 façades 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 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries is in accordance with
that produced 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 1100; and he further
states, but we know not upon what authority, that 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.