32 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
Maiolica plate. Pesaro. Maiolica plate, “The Lion 
Date of make and name of San Marco.” Caf- 
of artist are unknown faggiolo. I 5th Century 
the action of the atmosphere in the 
neighborhood of the sea. 
For many years after the discovery 
or at least the application of tin-glaze 
to pottery in Italy, large works and 
such pieces as the portrait bust and the 
Madonna and Child, here illustrated, 
were popular. But before the end of 
the first half of the 16th Century 
this practice had lost its vogue. There 
was, on the other hand, an increased 
demand for the tiles, plates, etc., of 
the maiolica, an encouragement that 
led to the establishment of numerous 
maiolica potteries throughout northern 
and central Italy, Romagna and Tus¬ 
cany leading, and Urbino 
and Pesaro rising to impor- Maiolica plate; 
tance in the manufacture "Raffaelo and La 
of this enameled ware. Both 
Pesaro and, later, Cubbio, decorator.* Caf- 
had attained fame for the faggiolo. Victoria 
pearly, the golden and the and Albert 
ruby luster glaze given 
their wares, that of Gubbio proving the 
finest in this respect. Deruta has also 
laid claim to the introduction of the 
admirable madreperla luster. Some 
years ago the writer visited this tiny, 
out-of-the-way village to inspect the 
botega of the modern maiolica makers, 
and well recalls the ingenious argu¬ 
ments advanced by the gifted director 
in support of Deruta’s claim, which 
left one convinced until Pesaro sa¬ 
vants in turn sought to appropriate the 
glory for their own town. 
Fortnum tells us that the Piedmon¬ 
tese and Lombard cities do not appear 
to have encouraged the potters' art to 
an equal extent in the 15th and in 
the 16th Century, and that neither 
can we learn of any excellence at¬ 
tained in Venice till the establishment 
of Durantine and Pesarese artists at 
that city in the middle of the latter 
period. Perhaps commerce did for the 
Queen of the Adriatic by the importa¬ 
tion 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 
Marks on early Caffaggiolo maiolica 
> 1566 " 
MVTi S C2 < 
^PlJSfAVJU * 
O-tA 
IJ8Z 
Marks on early Pesaro maiolica 
IV) 
1 J z J 
Marks on early Deruta maiolica 
Maiolica portrait bust, subject 
unknown. North Italian, late 
1 5th Century. Morgan Col¬ 
lection 
enameled or glazed pottery, decorated 
by artistic hands, were attainable only 
by the richer classes of purchasers, 
more modest wares or wooden trench¬ 
ers and ancestral copper vessels con¬ 
tenting the middle class. The art of 
maiolica was also encouraged in the 
northern duchies of Italy—Ferrara, 
Rimini and Ravenna. The Umbrian 
potters probably did not adopt the use 
of stanniferous glaze before the end 
of the 15th Century. 
The Glazes 
Maiolica plate; 
subject, “The 
workbench of a 
maiolica - potter.” 
Caffaggiolo. Vic¬ 
toria and Albert 
Museum, London 
Federigo, who succeeded to the 
duchy of Urbino in 1444, 
was a patron of the arts 
and a great collector. After 
his death, in 1482, his son 
Guidobaldo continued Fe- 
derigo’s patronage to the 
ceramic artists of Urbino. 
The introduction of the 
maiolica enamel did not, happily, lead to 
the abandonment of the metallic colors 
and prismatic glazes of the potters. As 
we learn from the Maiolica handbook 
of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
the retention of these metallic col¬ 
ors and prismatic glazes 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 cen¬ 
ter of the process of embellishment 
with the golden and ruby metallic lus¬ 
ters ; and indeed, we have little or no 
knowledge of artistic pottery produced 
at that fabrique which is not so en¬ 
riched. From some technicality in the 
process of the manufacture, some local 
advantage, or some secret in the com¬ 
position, 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, Ur- 
(Continued on page 78) 
