ForlÌ, Ferrara, etc.

The first notice we have of the pottery of ForlÌ is merely indirect, occurring in a document referred to by Passeri and dated as early as 1396, a passage in which speaks of John Pedrinus “formerly of the potteries of ForlÌ and now an inhabitant of Pesaro;” thus proving that such a manufactory did exist at the former town previous to that date; but it does not inform us whether it was more than a furnace for the production of ordinary wares. Piccolpasso refers to the painted majolica of ForlÌ, and there can be no doubt from the examples we still possess that at the time he wrote, in the middle of the sixteenth century, it was well known as one of the important fabriques of northern Italy.

Our next evidence is more direct, and consists of a series of examples in the South Kensington museum, the careful comparison of which has led to the conclusion that the wares produced at the botega of Maestro Jeronimo (?) at the latter end of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century were of a very high order. That numbered 7410 is the finest piece with which the writer is acquainted, part of an historical service made for Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, whose arms are emblazoned on the rim. It has hitherto been a question as to which of the early manufactories the production of this service could be attributed, but we think that there can be no hesitation, after a comparison with other pieces, in classifying it as a production of ForlÌ. The pretty plate no. 1803 (engraved) approaches nearer to the manner of the finer wares of ForlÌ than to any other fabrique with which we can connect it, and the pavement of tiles no. 30, on which occurs the date 1513, is remarkable, as shown in the next engraving, for the portrait heads introduced, one of which is that of the celebrated Melozzo; the other may perhaps be that of the artist who executed the work, and who is unquestionably the same as the painter of the Mº iero plate; from an inscription of doubtful reading it may be understood that he signs this work as “Petrus,” while the letter R, the initial of his patronymic, occurs with P at the side of what may be intended for his portrait.

Mr. Barker had a plate, from the Delsette collection, subject the story of Alexander and Roxana, on which is inscribed “Leochadius Solobrinus picsit forolivia mece 1555;” and in the museum at Bologna is a basin on which is painted a representation of the supper at which Mary Magdalene washes Jesus’ feet; on the back it is signed by the same artist, with the date 1564. This is the latest signed and dated piece of the fabrique with which we are acquainted.

Potteries are said to have been established at Bologna and Imola, and pieces have been ascribed to them. A plate is in a French collection, well painted and of about the year 1500, which has the name of Ravenna on the reverse.

Passing to the northern duchies of Italy we find that Alfonso I., duke of Ferrara, found means, notwithstanding his troubled and warlike rule, to establish a fabrique of Maiolica at his castle in Ferrara. Although the precise period of the introduction of the art is unknown, as early as 1436 the name of “Maestro Benedetto bocalaro in Castello” is recorded; in 1472 one Enrico, and in 1489 Gio. da Modena, are named; while in a memoriale of expenses in 1443 occurs the first mention of painted and glazed wares. A curious document in the archives of Mantua, dated 1494, tells us that Isabella (d’Este), wife of the marquis of Mantua (Gonzaga), had sent a plate which had been broken into three pieces to be repaired at Ferrara by the Maestri working at the castle; this was done, and the mended plate returned at the desire of the duchess of Ferrara with another as a present.

From 1506 to 1522 the artistic works seem to have been discontinued, probably on account of the wars in which the duke was engaged: and from 1534 to 1559, during the reign of Ercole II., the work does not seem to have been encouraged. Pietro-Paolo Stanghi of Faenza is the only artist recorded, having made the ornaments to a stove in the castle; but Alfonso II. took more interest in the manufacture, and Vasari speaks of the fine productions of his furnaces. Nearly half a century then passed away before we hear of fresh experiments in the production of porcelain directed by Mº. Camillo, of Urbino, assisted by his brother Battista, and which seem to have resulted in success. When injured by the accidental explosion of a cannon, which ultimately caused his death and that of three gentlemen in 1567, he kept the secret, refusing to divulge it. This event is mentioned by Bernardo Canigiani, the ambassador of the Florentine court, who speaks of Camillo da Urbino as a maker of vases, painter, and chemist, and the true modern discoverer of porcelain, “Ritrovatore moderno alla porcellana.” It would seem, however, that his brother, Battista, must have known something of the process, which he may have been able to perfect by experiments, for it appears that between 1568 and 1569 the work was continued, as on the 17th December of the latter year an entry is made of an unusual allowance of wine for a workman engaged in preparing the ingredients “per far porcellani.” The cruet or vase, here engraved, is of about this period; it is at South Kensington, no. 505.

It is greatly to be regretted that we have at present no clue by which we can, even with probability, attribute any of the examples of maiolica in our collections to the earlier works of the Faentine artists produced under Alfonso I. at Ferrara; the more so as both under his reign and under that of Alfonso II. the fabrique was conducted, not with a view to profit or commercial enterprise, but simply from princely magnificence and a love of art. The produce was for their own use, and for presents among friends, but not for sale; we may therefore conclude that it was of highly artistic and great technical excellence. This was exceptional among the potteries of that period in Italy, most of which were commercial undertakings, more or less patronized and encouraged by the ruling families of their several localities. Some Ferrarese pieces have doubtless been preserved, and are probably now classed among those of Faenza with which they must have a great affinity.

It is not till 1579, when the art was in decline and when the Urbino style of ornamentation prevailed, that, on the occasion of the marriage of Alfonso II., it is believed that a credenza was made, the pieces of which are to be recognized by bearing the device of a burning pyre with the motto “Ardet Æternum.” The pieces of this service have a distinctive character of their own, and although their connection with Ferrara may be merely one of ownership and not of origin, we think it well to class them under that head because we have no other standard to which we can attach all that is known of the history of that princely botega, and because these pieces have, in default of positive evidence to the contrary, been accepted as Ferrarese. They are remarkable for the purity of the white enamel ground; the grotesques are by another hand than those on pieces universally believed to be of the later period of Urbino or of Pesaro, but they are not easily distinguished without examination of the specimens side by side. Two pieces are in the Louvre, two others are at South Kensington.

Alfonso II. died in 1597, after which the dukedom was absorbed into the States of the Church. The Este removed to Modena, to which place the contents of the palace at Ferrara were carried, including the old maiolica, some of which is mentioned in inventories of the seventeenth century. A few pieces which escaped destruction during the French invasion of Italy were gathered from neglected corners of the palace, and placed in the public gallery of Modena in 1859.

Although the antique pottery of Modena is referred to by Pliny and by Livy, we have no exact record or marked example of wares produced there during the period of the renaissance. Modenese artists in terra-cotta worked at Ferrara, and Cristoforo da Modena was boccalaro to the duke of that territory in the sixteenth century. Piccolpasso names Modena as a place where maiolica was produced, but whether of a superior or of a more ordinary kind we are not informed. In the last century Geminiano Cozzi, of that city, was the leading maker of porcelain at Venice about 1765, but the monopoly granted to the fabrique of Sassuolo impeded the manufacture of enamelled wares elsewhere in the duchy.

At Sassuolo, a town prettily situated ten miles to the south of Modena, an establishment for the manufacture of enamelled earthenware was introduced by Gio. Andrea Ferrari in 1741. It would seem that he obtained from the duke Francesco III. the right of making ordinary white and painted maiolica, as the stanniferous enamelled wares were then universally denominated, to the exclusion of all rivals in the duchy and all importation from other parts, except during the fair held at Reggio. The work commenced in 1742, and in a few years he was joined by Gio. Maria Dallari. Their rights were from time to time renewed, and in 1756 confirmed to the extent of granting the monopoly to the family for three generations; the materials were not to be charged with import duty, and the advantages secured to the fabrique were further extended in 1761 by even excluding the foreign wares from the fair at Reggio; the manufacturers on their part being bound to supply the duchy with an abundance of good wares at moderate prices. These wares produced were various, among others finer pieces painted in the Japanese style and with flowers and gilding; groups of figures were also made, and a large export business carried on.

From a document in the Archivio della camera di commercio, it would appear that the art was introduced at Mantua about 1450, and that its workers had their statutes which were altered and amended from time to time; but we are quite unable to judge of the character of the wares produced. They were presumably of an inferior quality, for we have already seen that Isabella D’Este in 1494 procured maiolica for her own use from Ferrara, Urbino, &c., which would argue that the pottery of Mantua was inferior. In the second half of that century Schivenoglia mentions a bottega di Maioli, conducted by one Zonan Antonio Majolaro, and remains of a furnace with fragments of wares were discovered in 1864 on the riva al Lago inferiore, from whence a small plate was procured, painted with a female bust, arabesques, &c. Campori suggests that the impresa adopted by Francesco Gonzaga after the battle of Taro, namely a crucible in a fire and containing ingots of gold, may be a distinguishing mark of the Mantuan faÏence even of a later period.

Our knowledge of the production of Maiolica, or rather of artistic enamelled pottery, in Venice may be said to begin with the year 1540. Previous to that date there can be little doubt that the Venetian ovens produced enamelled wares of greater or less merit, but we have no sufficient record of their character. M. Jacquemart believes that works existed at Venice as early as the second half of the fifteenth century, arguing that if the qualities of the Venetian pottery were of so high an order at that period as to induce the inventor of the celebrated bianco di Ferrara to order vases for his own pharmacy, it must have been developed and perfected from an earlier date. But signor Lazari considered that the examples of glazed tiles existent in the sacristy of the church of Sta. Elena at Venice, having the arms of the Giustiniani family and dating about 1450-80; as also those in the Lando chapel of S. Sebastiano, having a monogram and the date 1510, and other examples anterior to about 1545, were importations from Faenza or from Castel Durante; an opinion shared by the writer after a careful examination of those pavements. The woodcut, however, p. 182 represents a very fine dish which we may reasonably ascribe to Venice; of about the year 1540: now at Kensington, no. 4438.

Sir William Drake quotes a petition, dated 1664, from the guild of the “Boccaleri” of Venice, in which reference is made to previous decrees in their favour issued in the years 1455, 1472, and 1518, prohibiting the importation of foreign earthenware; and a decree of the senate in 1665 prohibiting the importation or sale in Venice of any sort of foreign earthenware by any person

not being a member of the guild, but upon the condition that that body should keep the city well supplied with “latesini,” and that shops should be kept open for its sale. From the general tenor of this petition we may reasonably infer that at the period of its presentation the potter’s art in Venice was reduced to the production of very ordinary wares. It is curious also, and perhaps confirmatory of the inferiority of Venetian artistic pottery, that an exception in the decree against importation should be made in favour of the maiolica of Valencia, which we know also to have been imported into Genoa. This ware, which had once been excellent, had greatly deteriorated in 1664. The culminating period of the excellence of Venetian pottery in respect to painting and design was probably the middle of the sixteenth century.

The earliest dated example is a deep circular dish in the writer’s collection, the centre of which is occupied by the figure of a mermaid floating on the sea, a horn in her right hand, and regarding herself in a mirror which she holds in her left; the wide border is covered with intricate and very elegant arabesque sprays of foliage with fruits and flowers, among which are birds. The whole is painted in dull pale blue on a grey enamel and heightened with white, and on the reverse is the inscription “1540 · ADI · 16 · DEL · MEXE · DEOTVBRE.” In the Brunswick museum there is a large dish, having the subject of Moses and Aaron entreating Pharaoh, with a rich border of medallions figurative of the months, &c., and the inscription “1568. Zener Domenigo da Venecia Feci in la botega al ponte sito del Andar a San Paolo.” Pieces are in various collections having for mark a C-formed fish hook, with loop at one extremity and barbed point at the other. The only name which occurs in connexion with these examples is that of one Dionigi Marini, who signs a plate having this mark twice repeated, and the date 1636. In 1753 the Bertolini obtained a decree of the senate permitting them to open a shop in Venice for the sale of their maiolica, free for ten years of all import and export duties. Notwithstanding, the manufactory had ceased before the expiration of the term of the decree in 1763, when it was annulled.

The leading characteristic of the enamelled pottery produced at Venice in the sixteenth century is a close buff-coloured body, covered by an even glaze of grey colour, produced by the ad mixture of a small portion of zaffre, and known as “smaltino.” Upon this the design was outlined and shaded in blue, of a rather low tone, the high lights being touched in with white. Engraved

is a large dish, very elegantly ornamented, probably made about 1540. The reverse of the dishes generally have a belt of foliated sprays round the rim, and radiating flutings or alternating thin and thicker lines round the “cavetto.” It is worthy of remark that some of the Paduan wares are similarly ornamented, and we may thence infer some connexion between the establishments or an attempt at imitation; the fact that a cross was adopted as a mark at both places is also noteworthy.

The Venetian wares of the last century which, without positive proof, are generally believed to have been produced by the Bertolini have also distinctive qualities. They are remarkable for their thinness and lightness; baked at a high temperature, they are almost as sonorous as metal; the ornamentation round the rim is frequently executed in rilievo, and they have been mistaken for enamelled copper with repoussÉ flowers, &c. The colours used were generally blue and brown, with yellow occasionally, on a pale blue or dull white ground.

We must refer to the large catalogue of the collection of Maiolica at South Kensington, for notices of the less important establishments at Treviso, Bassano, Padua, Verona, and some other towns: as also at Milan, Turin, and Naples. In the last city, at the royal fabrique of Capo di Monte established in 1736, several varieties of fine ware were made, from a beautiful artificial porcelain to a faÏence of high quality, of which, however, little seems to have been produced.

In every large collection pieces will be found for which it is not easy to assign any place as the fabrique at which they were produced. The very interesting piece (in the woodcut p. 185) at South Kensington, no. 2562, is an example: it is of early date, and a certain oriental character about the design would suggest the influence of Moorish potters. Another such example is the dish, no. 2593, of the fifteenth century and probably of Tuscan origin; we give also a woodcut of this.

THE END.