HISPANO-MORESQUE POTTERY.
This numerous and now well-defined class of wares was a few years since
indiscriminately grouped with the lustred Maiolica of Italy, in which
country the larger number of specimens now in our collections had been
preserved, and whence they have been procured. Many hesitated to believe
in their Spanish origin, thinking it more probable that they were the
work of Moorish potters established in the sister peninsula. The
correspondence, however, of technical character with the “azulejos,” the
well-known tiles which adorn the palace of the Alhambra at Seville, and
with the celebrated “jarra” or Alhambra vase, as also a marked
difference between these and any wares of known Italian manufacture, led
to the conviction that they must be of Spanish origin, and the work of
the Moorish potters and their descendants who had been established in
that country.
Under this belief they were classed together as Hispano-arabian
enamelled and lustred wares, but this appellation would connect them
with the so-called Saracens who conquered that country in A.D. 712. The
first Arab invaders were themselves expelled in 756 by Abd-el-Rhama, who
caused himself to be proclaimed caliph at Cordova. This city thus became
the great centre of his power, and here was erected the mosque of which
the decoration attests the exquisite oriental taste of its founders. The
ornamental wall tiles on this building are of truly Hispano-arabian
manufacture.
The rule of the successors of Abd-el-Rhama ended and the line became
extinct in 1038, soon after which time the Moorish conquest was
completed. In 1235 Granada became the chief seat of the Moorish rulers,
and there they erected the fortress-palace of the Alhambra about 1273.
After an occupation of the country for four centuries the Moors were
conquered in 1492. The Christian element would then predominate in the
decoration of the pottery; and in 1566 the last blow was struck at
Moorish art by the promulgation of a decree prohibiting the speaking or
writing of their language, and forbidding the use to men and women of
their national dress and veil, and the execution of decorative works in
the Moresque style.
When first recognized as a distinct family these wares were found to be
difficult of classification, from the entire absence of dates or names
of manufactories. Labarte and others considered the copper-lustred
pieces to be the earlier, but Mr. Robinson, with his usual acuteness,
saw in the ornamentation of various examples reasons for reversing this
arrangement, and suggested one which subsequent observation has only
tended to confirm. He placed those pieces having a decoration in a paler
lustre with interlacings and other ornaments in manganese and blue,
coats of arms, &c., in the earlier period; those having the ornament in
the paler lustre only, without colour, of nearly equal date, as also
some of the darker coppery examples with shields of arms; and of a later
period those so glaring in copper-coloured lustre as to be more painful
than pleasing to the eye.
M. Davillier (to whose researches into the history of these wares we are
greatly indebted) considers that in all probability MALAGA was the
earliest site of the manufacture, and argues that its maritime situation
and trade with the east and its proximity to Granada would warrant that
opinion, which is strengthened by the earliest documentary evidence yet
brought to light. One Ibn-Batoutah a native of Tangier, writing in 1350
after journeying through the east, states that “at Malaga, the beautiful
gilt pottery or porcelain is made, which is exported to the most distant
countries.” He makes no mention of a fabrique at Granada in describing
that city, and we may therefore reasonably conclude that Malaga was the
centre of this industry in the Moorish kingdom, and if so there is great
probability that the celebrated Alhambra vase was made there. From the
style of its ornamentation, the form of the characters in the
inscriptions, and other inferences, the date of this piece may be fairly
assigned to the middle of the 14th century, which would be about the
same period as that traveller’s visit to the city. It has nevertheless
been ascribed by others to an earlier time, about 1320. This vase is so
generally and well known that we need only allude to its characteristic
form and richly decorated surface. It is said to have been found in the
16th century under the pavement of the Alhambra together with several
others, all of which were filled with gold; a tradition which may,
perhaps, have some foundation in fact.
The Alhambra vase was copied at Sèvres in 1842, and since by the Messrs.
Deck in faience, of the original size after a cast and photographs
procured by M. Davillier. This last is now in the South Kensington
museum.
The fabrique of Malaga existed in the sixteenth century; and the plateau
engraved p. 78 was probably made there. We learn from Lucio Marineo
writing of the memorable things of Spain in 1517, that “at Malaga are
made also very beautiful vases of faience.” After this date no further
record is found, and M. Davillier thinks it probable that the works
gradually declined as those of Valencia increased in importance, and
that by the middle of the sixteenth century they had entirely ceased. He
attributes to these potteries three large deep basins and two vases in
the hôtel Cluny at Paris, which are covered with designs in golden
_reflet_ and blue of great similarity to those of the Alhambra vase, and
also the fine vase from the Soulages collection at South Kensington.
After the fabrique of Malaga that of MAJORCA is thought to be the most
ancient, and the extension of its manufactures by commerce is indirectly
proved by the adoption of the term “Majolica” by the potters of Italy
for such of their wares as were decorated with the metallic lustre.
Scaliger, writing in the first half of the sixteenth century, speaks
highly of the wares of the
[Illustration]
Balearic islands: but not being an “expert” in ceramic productions,
after praising the porcelain recently brought from China, admires what
he calls their imitations made at Majorca. “We call them (he says)
‘_majolica_,’ changing one letter in the name of the island where we are
assured that the most beautiful are made:” an interesting testimony to
the importation of these wares into Italy and the knowledge of their
origin, as also to the derivation of the term applied to the home
manufacture of Pesaro and Gubbio.
Although presumably of much earlier date no record of this pottery
occurs till that of Giovanni di Bernardi da Uzzano, the son of a rich
Pisan merchant, who in 1442 wrote a treaty on commerce and navigation,
published by Paquini, in which he speaks of the manufactures of Majorca
and Minorca, particularly mentioning faience which “had then a very
large sale in Italy.” We have evidence that the principal seat of the
manufacture was at Ynca, in the interior of the island; and in
confirmation of this discovery some plates have been observed by M.
Davillier in collections on which the arms of that island are
represented. One is in the hôtel Cluny, and is probably of the fifteenth
century. It is Moresque in style with illegible inscriptions in an odd
mixture of the Arabic and Gothic characters; the lustre of a red colour
and the arms in the centre. These arms are, paly gules and or, on a fess
argent a dog in the act of bounding, sable.
There would seem also to have been a fabrique at Iviça for Vargas, in
his description of the Balearic islands, says, “It is much to be
regretted that Iviça has ceased to make her famous vases of faience,
destined for exportation as well as for local consumption.” But of their
precise nature he gives us no information and we have no knowledge.
The kingdom of VALENCIA in the time of the Romans was noted for its
works in pottery; those produced at Saguntum, the present Murviedro,
having a great reputation at that period according to Pliny, who
mentions the jasper red pottery of Saguntum where 1,200 workmen were
employed.
To these, after the occupation of the Goths, succeeded the Arab workmen
who accompanied the Mussulman conquest in 711. Again, when the Moors
were in 1239 subjected to Christian domination the potters’ art was
considered of sufficient importance to claim a special charter from the
king, who granted it to the _Saracens_ of Xativa, a small town now
called San-Felipe. This charter provides that every master potter making
vases, domestic vessels, tiles, “rajolas” (an Arabic name for
wall-tiles, synonymous with “azulejos”), should pay a “besant” annually
and freely pursue his calling.
Sir Wm. Drake in his notes on Venetian ceramics cites an ordinance of
the Venetian senate in 1455, declaring that no earthenware works of any
kind should be introduced into the dominions of the Signory except
crucibles (“_correzzoli_”) and _Majolica of Valencia_; an important fact
proving the value that was attached to the Spanish lustre wares in Italy
in the middle of the fifteenth century. The woodcut p. 81 represents a
fine plateau at South Kensington, golden lustred; of about the year
1500.
Marineo Siculo, writing in 1517, devotes a chapter to the utensils and
other objects of faience made in Spain, in which he states that “the
most esteemed are those of Valencia, which are so well worked and so
well gilded;” and Capmany records a decree of the municipal council of
Barcelona in 1528 relative to the exportation of faience to Sicily and
elsewhere, in which “la loza de Valencia” is named. Again Barreyros a
Portuguese, in his “Chorographia,” praising the pottery of Barcelona
says that it is “even superior” to that of Valencia. The expulsion of
the Moors in 1610 by Philip III. gave the fatal blow to this industry,
as we learn from contemporary authors that many of the banished artizans
were potters (“olleros”).
From time immemorial St. John the evangelist has been particularly
venerated at Valencia, and in the grand processions of Corpus Christi
the emblematic eagle is carried, holding in his beak a banderole on
which is inscribed the first sentence of his gospel: “_In principio erat
Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum._” On some pieces of Hispano-moresque
ware this sentence is inscribed, and the eagle sometimes covers the
front, sometimes the back. There is therefore reason to infer that these
were made in one of the fabriques of Valencia, and if so their style
would be to a considerable extent typical of the Valencian pottery. The
decoration was probably inspired by the wares of Malaga, and it is
likely that many of the pieces of the fifteenth century, bearing
inscriptions in Gothic characters with animals, &c. in blue, may be of
this fabrique.
[Illustration]
In the British museum is a plate painted with an antelope and Moresque
ornament in blue, and with the inscription “>Senta Catalina Guarda Nos>:”
others occur, though very rarely, with Spanish inscriptions. At the
commencement of the 17th century the Valencian wares had lost nearly all
their Moresque character, and the employment of the copper lustre only
was retained: the designs having figures in the costumes of that period
and coarse leafage or birds with “_rococo_” ornaments.
[Illustration]
It would thus appear that the fabrique of Malaga was the most ancient,
and that of Valencia the most important in Spain; but other potteries
existed, and their productions were widely distributed. The woodcut
represents a Valencian dish with golden lustre, of the 15th century.
That these wares were imported into England is proved by fragments found
in London, on one of which, in the British museum, is represented a man
in the costume of the period of Henry the fourth, about 1400.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Makers’ names have never been observed upon pieces of this pottery, and
marks are very rarely met with. The above marks are on the back of two
small plates with deep centres, in which is painted a shield of arms
bearing a crowned eagle with open wings in blue, the rest of the surface
being diapered with small vine or briony leaves and interlaced tendrils
in concentric order, of golden lustre on the creamy white ground.
These pieces are perhaps of the same service, probably of Malaga or
Valencia, and may be of the earlier half of the 15th century; they are
in the writer’s possession. In Mr. Henderson’s rich collection is a vase
on one side of which is the inscription, of which we give a facsimile:
[Illustration]
It reads “Illustrissimo Signore Cardinale D’Este in Urbe Romæ.”
Specimens of a lustred ware have been brought from Sicily, differing
materially from that of Spain, and perhaps forming a connecting link
between that and the earlier Persian pottery. They are formed of an
ordinary clay covered with an earthy or stanniferous (?) wash, which is
again coated with a rich translucent blue glaze on which a diapering of
vermicular ornament in coppery lustre covers the whole piece, except
that the edges and handles are also painted in lustre. This ware is by
no means common; it occurs in the form of plates, covered bowls, and
“_albarelli_:” and is supposed to be the workmanship of Moorish potters
at Calata-Girone.