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EARLY ITALIAN MAIOLICA. 
 
BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 T 
 
 HE ORIENTAL INFLUENCE ON THE CERAMIC 
 ART OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. M CM. 
 
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 CASE 
 8 
 
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 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 *T A HE aim and object of the present volume is the illustration of a 
 series of examples of early Italian Maiolica which has come 
 to light in the course of recent excavations in Italy. The work has 
 been undertaken in the belief that it is on a basis of illustration 
 alone that any satisfactory art-history can be solidly built. Mere 
 words, however skilful the word-painter, can never render an 
 accurate picture of a work of art, whereas a simple outline at once 
 shows what the most elaborate verbal description will fail to 
 express. Had the first historians of Maiolica taken the trouble to 
 give representations of the objects they described, their abounding 
 errors, inevitable, perhaps, in the preliminary stage of all enquiry, 
 would not so long have passed current in the works of their 
 successors, since having the illustrations for reference the mistakes 
 would soon have been discovered and corrected. 
 
 It is true that hitherto the examples of the art throughout its entire 
 course have not all been known to the historians. Those belonging 
 to its period of maturity and decline in the XVIth century have 
 been sufficiently numerous and accessible. But precisely those 
 primitive essays, precious because they show the qualities peculiar 
 
 ivil60589 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 to the season of youth, and which once outgrown are never 
 renewed, had disappeared, apparently without hope of recovery. 
 The specimens which have been lately found are comparatively few 
 in number ; they may, however, be accepted us an approximate 
 representation of this particular phase of Italian ceramic art. 
 
 Their acquisition has not indeed been accompanied by a corre- 
 sponding discovery of written documents indicating their date or 
 the potteries where they were made. Had one to choose between 
 the objects themselves and any amount of writing relating to them, 
 there would be little hesitation as to which were the more important. 
 Nevertheless, the history of Maiolica cannot be written with 
 certitude without reference to contemporary records of one sort or 
 another. Yet it must be confessed, judging from what has been 
 already published by Italian writers, that those relating to the 
 XVth century and earlier are both scanty and deficient in the 
 information requisite to localize the wares and to set forth their 
 examples in chronological sequence. I must therefore crave the 
 indulgence of the reader for the general terms so often employed 
 in dealing with these topics. 
 
 I am only too well aware of the disadvantage of being obliged 
 to use qualifying phrases, consequent on the necessity of frequently 
 having to balance remote probabilities, the results then only 
 permitting conjectural conclusions. My chief source of consolation 
 is the conviction that the reader will prefer being brought face to 
 face with the perplexing problems still unsolved, rather than be 
 amused with theories, however ingeniously woven. And I venture 
 to hope that much may be pardoned so long as the endeavour is 
 made to avoid being misleading. 
 
 I would fain also indulge a hope that the publication of the 
 following illustrations may lighten the labours of future workers 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 in the same field. Respecting the results of that future work 
 there can be no reason for doubt or misgiving. Now that the 
 Italians are beginning to unearth the ceramic remains buried in 
 the cities once famous for their Maiolica production, and with 
 further search for written documents in the depositories of the 
 national archives which is likely to ensue, there cannot fail to be 
 forthcoming materials for a history of the art that will be both 
 ample and trustworthy. 
 
 When in the following pages an object is described as 
 "Maiolica," it is intended to imply that the glaze is stanniferous; 
 when it is stated to be " Mezza-maiolica," it means that the glaze 
 is vitreous, that is to say, so far as I have been able to determine. 
 But in the case of many of these early vessels it is unsafe to assert 
 the exact quality of the glaze from its inspection alone : in some 
 cases the imperfect composition of the glaze and the insufficient 
 firing of the body are obvious ; again, in others it seems that the 
 combination of the vitreous and tin glaze on the same object has 
 been attempted. Such is the uncertainty that I have remarked 
 even practical potters have not been in agreement on this question 
 in all instances : although, doubtless, had they been able to 
 submit the glazes to chemical analysis the presence or absence of 
 tin would have been settled beyond dispute. It is therefore 
 desirable that the historian of Maiolica should seek the co-operation 
 of the chemist. It is not alone in the matter of glazes that an 
 authoritative decision can only be arrived at by analysis, the same 
 means must also be employed to discover the substances composing 
 the body of the different wares. Until such analysis has been 
 made and tabulated, the classification of Maiolica according to 
 localities (which may be determined by the potter's clay) will 
 always be open to discussion. Such discussion, it is true, affords 
 
 b 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 an opportunity for the display of a vast amount of local patriotism, 
 otherwise it is perhaps rather barren of intelligent result. 
 
 I beg to offer my respectful thanks to Prince Liechtenstein for 
 photographs of objects in his celebrated collection, to Prof. Moretti 
 for a painting of a boccale belonging to him, to Dr. Otto von Falke 
 for a painting of the " Cup of St. Francis," to the Directors of the 
 several Museums for facilities rendered in copying the objects 
 under their charge, and to Mr. S. J. Hodson, R.W.S., for enabling 
 me to add a series of colour-prints to the illustrations. The ideal 
 illustration of all works treating of ceramic art should, without 
 question, be in colour. Its cost, however, compels its sparing use 
 to all who may not happen to be millionaires. Yet this con- 
 sideration scarcely affects the publications of Museums, or it 
 should not, since by adopting the method their catalogues are not 
 only rendered more effective from an artistic point of view, but 
 become valuable helps to the workers in one of the most important 
 national industries. 
 
 H. W. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ^^ student of the great national artistic movements can fail 
 to have remarked the relationship more or less apparent 
 existing between them, and he will, doubtless, have often derived a 
 keen enjoyment in tracing affinities that are not merely accidental 
 and fanciful. In some instances the ties are slight, the kinship 
 being remote ; the interest then derived from following a clue is 
 little more than that of curiosity. In others it is intimate and 
 bound up with their very existence, so that rightly to understand 
 and appreciate an art, which may have been both rich and fruitful, 
 it is necessary to take into account another which had preceded it, 
 possibly at a considerable interval of time. It is thus in the 
 case of the ceramic art of the Italian Renaissance. The most direct 
 and potent influence shaping its form and directing its practice 
 was obviously the brilliant contemporary Oriental art, which, 
 indeed, was likewise the case with other phases of the Italian art 
 of the period. But its deepest affinities were racial. The qualities 
 by which its individuality were asserted, which distinguished it 
 from the artistic pottery of other nations, were those also present in 
 Etruscan art of the old stock. This was only natural, seeing that 
 both emanated from the same race and were evolved on the same 
 soil, and, further, remembering that ancient Etruscan art was of 
 
 c 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 singular force and vitality. Fortunately its long buried remains 
 are numerous and representative enough to enable the student to 
 arrive at clear and accurate ideas respecting its general achieve- 
 ment. They afford ample evidence of the artistic capacity of the 
 race and the bent of the national character, points it is necessary 
 briefly to glance at from their explaining much that is character- 
 istic in the art under consideration, even though a period of sixteen 
 centuries or more separated the two. 
 
 In using the term Etruscan art it is, of course, understood that 
 the native origin of much of the so-called Etruscan remains is on 
 conclusive evidence justly denied. In the case of the ceramic art 
 it is admitted on all hands that the finest vases from the Etruscan 
 cemeteries are Athenian. There are others, however, in red and 
 black which neither from their technique nor the style of their 
 ornamentation can be assigned to Greek potteries, and it is from 
 these that the special qualities of the native design can be judged. 
 Again, the early bucchero, betraying an Oriental influence, and the 
 late red Aretine ware, influenced by Hellenistic art, show the 
 executive capacity of the Etruscan potter at the beginning and the 
 end of his career in ancient times. Then as to the style of design 
 in pictorial art, with which that of the potter is in close alliance, 
 the wall-paintings could not have been imported from Greece, and 
 they are sufficiently numerous to furnish an adequate judgment of 
 the abilities of a line of painters working over many successive 
 generations. Or turning to sculpture, another branch of art 
 whereof the potter must have a practical knowledge, the large 
 sarcophagi would scarcely have been made in Greece, nor indeed 
 many other classes of objects bearing figure decoration. From 
 these various sources a mass of evidence may be obtained which 
 should at least warrant fairly trustworthy conclusions. Thus ex- 
 amining the figure drawing, always the most important criterion 
 of design, it is found that the personages are distinguished by clear 
 definition and for the most part portrayed in energetic action. 
 The forms, however, show a certain stiffness and austerity inclining 
 
INTRODUCTION. X1I1 
 
 to angularity ; they are destitute of the supple grace characteristic 
 of Greek draughtsmanship, and though the action of the figures is 
 charged with violent impulsive movement, their anatomical con- 
 struction is not always entirely satisfactory. There is often a 
 profuse display of muscularity, but the contours and attachments 
 of the muscles are not invariably indicated with scientific precision. 
 Lapses or mannerisms of these kinds are not what one expects to 
 find in the designs of Greek artists or in the handiwork of those 
 trained in Hellenic centres of culture. They denote rather the 
 artistic creations of a strong, stern, energetic and martial race, 
 such as we learn from history were the Etruscans. Hence along 
 with the obvious shortcomings are present the high qualities of 
 directness and the faculty of seizing the dramatic presentation of a 
 subject at its most impressive moment ; the actors in the story 
 possess a marked individuality, sometimes even verging on carica- 
 ture, and the treatment is always naturalistic — that is to say, in 
 the best period of the national art. 
 
 If there is one specimen of sculpture obtained from the Etruscan 
 tombs which may be put forth as the work of a native artist it is 
 the Sarcophagus in terra-cotta, with life-sized male and female 
 figures, in the British Museum. Admitting that all the motives 
 of ornamentation on the sides of the monument are to be traced to 
 Ionian Greek art, yet their execution displays little of the facile 
 elegance of the original models. The forms of the figures are 
 meagre and their execution is dry ; they evince, however, the 
 capacity for rendering individual character denoting great artistic 
 endowment in their author, and the modelling throughout is 
 rendered with a force and vigour which is wonderfully arresting 
 and convincing. In this instance the figures are quiescent, whilst 
 on the sepulchral urns the subjects usually represented are selected 
 for their tragic interest, thus affording the artist the opportunity 
 of designing figures in swiit movement and contrasted action, such 
 as would be appropriate in the frequently repeated compositions 
 representing the duel of Eteokles and Polynikes, the death of 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 (Enomaus, Odysseus, and Polyphemus, and other of similar 
 character. The predilection for subjects of a terrible nature is 
 particularly exemplified in the wall-paintings decorating the tombs, 
 one of the most striking being that in a Vulci tomb depicting 
 Achilles sacrificing the Trojan prisoners*; which is remarkable 
 alike for the masterly design and foreshortening in the figure 
 drawing and the force of expression in the countenances of the 
 personages. In the mythological scenes containing representations 
 of the infernal deities, as in the Theseus and Pirithous in Hades in 
 a tomb at Corneto f, they are portrayed in aspect more fierce and 
 in expression more malign than in any similar inventions which 
 occur in Greek art. If we would find analogies with these gro- 
 tesque and fantastic creations they must be sought rather among 
 the cruel and monstrous idols of Mesopotamia and Assyria than in 
 the idealized inventions of the Hellenic artists. 
 
 All these special qualities, which were more or less reflected in 
 what may fairly be accepted as the genuine work of the native 
 Etruscan artists after they had ceased to be mere copyists of Greek 
 motives and compositions and before the later decadent stage, are 
 plainly discernible in the art of the great Umbrian and Tuscan 
 masters of the Renaissance. Examining the figures in the above- 
 mentioned British Museum Sarcophagus, their structural peculi- 
 arities will be found reproduced in the sculpture of Donatello and 
 his contemporaries. The figures might almost be the prototypes 
 of the emaciated Baptists and Magdalens of the early quattro- 
 centisti. So also with the demons of the wall-paintings, which 
 naturally rise in the memory when we stand before Signorelli's 
 Ivferno at Orvieto. And the prisoner standing bound and awaiting 
 execution in the Vulci painting might serve for the model of many 
 a martyred St. Sebastian in the early Italian pictures. There is 
 no intention of implying that all Etruscan painting of the so-called 
 
 * See Martha, L'Art Etrusque, 1889, fig. 269. 
 t Op. tit. fig. 268. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 third period is conceived in the spirit of what the Italians term 
 " terribilita." Some of the scenes are of a joyful nature, and in 
 these the analogy with the after-work refers only to the presenta- 
 tion of the figures. But the vein of devotional sentiment, wherein 
 the Renaissance artists showed themselves to be really inventors 
 and originators, is naturally absent in the works of their predeces- 
 sors. True to their ancient instincts, the Tuscan painters were 
 ready on occasion to elaborate the panorama of Hell in all its 
 various compartments and circles, so that the sinner must have 
 been as familiar with the geography of the region as he was with 
 the streets and piazze of his native city. Yet these uncompromis- 
 ing realists who could revel in details of horror with genuine 
 Dantesque relish, at the same time created types of virginal purity 
 and beatified humanity such as had not elsewhere appeared in 
 art. 
 
 This freshly acquired faculty was, of course, due to the super- 
 session of the old religion by Mediaeval Christianity. The new 
 faith revolutionized art by the introduction of new types unknown 
 to the artists of antiquity. Two of these were specially significant, 
 the first being the figure of the crucified Christ, a motive appealing 
 to the racial instinct of the artists for tragic representation, but 
 under the new dispensation set forth as a type and embodyment of 
 sorrow and suffering, of renunciation and of the victory of spirit 
 over sense and matter, which was nothing less than the reversal of 
 the old Etruscan ideals of battle and banquetting. The second was 
 the group of the Mother and Child, a type which more than any 
 other had a benignant and elevating influence on Tuscan art. It 
 evolved a sense of beauty at once gracious and refined that had, 
 unsuspected, for long ages lain dormant in the soul of the Etruscan 
 artist. In the presence of that personification of what is most 
 tender and touching in humanity he laid aside his sternness and 
 severity, he realized the simplicity as well as the universality of 
 the motive. He set it in the environment of his native flower- 
 enamelled valleys and olive-clad hills, guarded b}' the distant clear- 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cut mountains, a landscape emblematic of what is most soothing 
 and peaceful in nature ; and in countless, ever varied presentation, 
 appealing to all, winning all hearts, he there attained perhaps the 
 highest level of artistic achievement, certainly that wherein it 
 profers its most consolatory message to mankind. There will 
 always be a diversity of opinion respecting the dogmas of Mediaeval 
 Christianity and the ideals of life it set forth. But there can 
 be no question as to its influence in shaping and determining the 
 course of Italian art of the XlVth century. It is the paramount 
 factor which must never be ignored. Conversely, the fact that the 
 gospel history was mainly popularized through the agency of 
 Tuscan pictorial art had much to do with the aspect under which 
 it was presented, and its ready acceptance as a national belief by a 
 race keenly sensitive to esthetic perceptions. It would have been 
 a much harder and a more sombre thing, and have been open to 
 more serious opposition, had Guttenberg invented movable types a 
 thousand years or so earlier — say in the days of Athanasius. 
 
 Whilst it is possible to prove the relationship of Tuscan art to 
 that of ancient Etruria, the continuity of the latter is a question 
 far more difficult to determine. In the case of the pottery, it is 
 probable that the rudest and commonest kinds in use among the 
 Etruscan peasantry were similar in shape and substance to that 
 made for the same class during the darker period of the Middle 
 Ages. But even of that not unlikely supposition the proof appears 
 to be wanting. The student is aware of the obscurity of the 
 political history of the country for several centuries after the fall 
 of the Roman Empire. He knows only too well how uncertain is 
 the record and how bald the narration of the events which actually 
 occurred ; he can therefore hardly expect to arrive at any precise 
 information relating to its art. The barbarians, the Goths and the 
 Vandals who overran and ravaged Italy, we are told destroyed 
 everything within their reach, no monuments, saving some few 
 of extraordinary solidity, escaped the general wreckage. Objects 
 in the precious metals would be carried away, but those in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV11 
 
 more fragile materials would naturally be involved in the common 
 destruction, or if any which may have been associated with the 
 ancient religion had been spared they would have fallen victims to 
 the iconoclastic zeal of the Christian priests : " And the monks 
 finish'd what the Goths began." We read that the complete and 
 absolute exhaustion of the country following repeated invasions 
 extended over centuries. Vast tracts of land went entirely out of 
 cultivation, and where feeble attempts were made to till the 
 ground the ploughman descended from his fortified village on a 
 mountain spur armed with sword and spear. At a time when 
 such were the conditions of life it may be taken for certain there 
 was little regard for artistic industries. It was only the handicrafts 
 of the barest necessity which were practised, and those in their 
 most primitive fashion. Hence when there came an amelioration 
 of these conditions of life, when the inhabitants of the more 
 important cities were able to surround them with walls and 
 defences, thereby securing the primary necessity of civic life, the 
 artists would have to start afresh, almost indeed from the first 
 rudimentary stage. 
 
 One link in the chain of evidence referring to the derivation of 
 an important feature of ceramic design, namely, its shape, may be 
 taken as proven in the case of the later Mediaeval and early 
 Renaissance polters. A comparison of their vessels with those of 
 the Etruscans shows that the one reproduced the shapes of the 
 other, sometimes to the smallest peculiarities. It is easy to under- 
 stand how this came about ; the remains of the ancient vases must 
 have been plentiful in the surface-soil (they may be found there 
 even to this day) mostly as fragments, but here and there a 
 perfect or nearly perfect vessel would sometimes be turned up. 
 Again, without crediting the herdsmen or peasants with any 
 passion for archaeological research, it is reasonably certain that a 
 tomb would now and again be discovered, probably by sheer 
 accident, and thus the potters would have a series of models ready 
 to hand. Much of this potter}- would be the red and black ware 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with figure ornamentation, but the figure motives would be left 
 severely alone, for the simple reason that the drawing of the nude 
 or even of the draped forms would be far beyond the capacity of 
 the artists. Of living things the most they would attempt would 
 be birds and animals ; hence we find " fearful wild-fowl " and 
 impossible quadrupeds depicted on the primitive vessels. And we 
 find likewise the ornamentation of the classical period, as the 
 guilloche, the herringbone, trellis-work and so on, all decorative 
 motives which appear on the Etruscan vases. It is scarcely 
 necessary to say that the colour of the ancient pottery was either 
 black or red, or the two combined. The Etruscans were, it is 
 true, acquainted with the blue and purple glazes of the Egyptians, 
 since some of the vases of the latter have been found in the tombs, 
 but they neither used nor probably understood the preparation of 
 the coloured glazes. They were content to repeat the red and the 
 black ornamentation for generation after generation. Separately 
 black and red are colours of great dignity ; united they constitute 
 a grave and solemn harmony, yet one that by reason of constant 
 repetition would at last become terribly monotonous, it would be 
 like an heroic attitude which too long persisted in tends to 
 weariness. The Tuscans at once recognized that this restricted 
 chromatic scale was a thing of the past. With the new age came 
 a development of the colour sense such as was apparently unknown 
 in ancient times. The East had pointed out the way, the emotional 
 capabilities of colour had always been appreciated by the Orientals, 
 and now with the stirring of the waters the West was awakening 
 to the perception of combinations and refinements of colour 
 required for the adequate expression of the ideas and aspirations 
 of the coming Renaissance. The chromatic schemes of the potters 
 display the natural timidity common to the commencements of all 
 artistic movements ; the important point, however, was determined, 
 the new departure was the step in the right direction, the one 
 which often requires so much courage to take. Having once 
 achieved a polychrome ornamentation on a wLite ground protected 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 by a glaze, the future of the art was assured. The technique was, 
 of course, borrowed from the Oriental pottery ; but even i£ the 
 Italians had not had this contemporary art for reference, they 
 would in all probability themselves have invented a similar method 
 of procedure. 
 
 There is at present no evidence permitting the assertion of the 
 date of the earliest painted Italian pottery, neither is the locality 
 of its first production known. The honour of its birthplace has 
 been claimed for various cities, but no one has ventured to speak 
 in more than general terms as to when the event occurred. Until 
 some trustworthy testimony can be adduced it is idle discussing 
 the former question, and the same might be said respecting the 
 latter, except that certain motives of ornamentation on some of 
 the few known examples of the art suggest the possibility that they 
 belong to the XlVth century, but these may not represent the 
 actual beginnings of the method. 
 
 It would be interesting to learn how the new invention was at 
 first received and whether it came into general use ; yet here also 
 the attainable information lacks precision. From what may be 
 inferred from the references to the domestic life of the Italians 
 during the XlVth and XVth centuries in the Chronicles, or may 
 be gathered from the archives, the furniture and utensils in the 
 houses of the ordinary citizens were of extreme simplicity. Articles 
 of artistic design may have adorned the altars of the churches and 
 have lent pomp to the ritual, they may likewise have been present 
 in the palaces of princes and the hierarchy. The painters found 
 employment in the churches and government buildings, but even 
 they appear to have received no commissions from even the richest 
 merchants till towards the end of the XVth century *. Among 
 
 * Vasari's amusing story of Lorentino D'Angiolo, of Arezzo, painting a San 
 Martino for a peasant in exchange for a pig (whereby the painter's children 
 partook of the customary carnival feast), suggests that the artists may have 
 occasionally derived a precarious source of revenue from painting votive pictures 
 for pious persons of humble station. Such work being apparently the equivalent 
 of the modem " pot-boiler." 
 
 d 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the customers of the goldsmiths were undoubtedly some of the 
 latter class, who would purchase articles of personal adornment ; 
 there does not seem, however, to be any contemporary evidence 
 justifying the conclusion they were buyers of artistic pottery. 
 The nobles, continuing the practice of Roman times, drank out 
 of silver or gold cups, they also used glasses ; so likewise the 
 wealthy ecclesiastics ; the rest of the community appear to have 
 contented themselves with wooden or earthen vessels, the latter 
 perhaps bearing a lead glaze. 
 
 It is of course possible that the Oriental glazed wares, especially 
 the commoner sort, were included in the pottery used by the 
 Italians ; unfortunately no documentary evidence, so far as the 
 writer is aware, can be adduced throwing light upon the subject. 
 The galleons which came laden from the East to Venice, Pisa, 
 Genoa, and other ports must surely have included in their merchan- 
 dise more or less of the brilliant and fascinating Oriental wares. 
 Possibly they were imported in quantity sufficiently large to have 
 what is termed captured the home markets; then the production of 
 the new pottery would have been stimulated by the spirit of 
 rivalry, from the determination of the native artists to oust their 
 foreign rivals. Should it prove that such was the case, it would 
 not have been the first instance in which a form of art displaying 
 the highest qualities of design and invention may be traced back 
 to an origin that was purely commercial. The mystery will prob- 
 ably not be cleared up until systematic excavations under the 
 superintendence of trained ceramists on the sites where it may be 
 supposed the remains of the pottery of the period are to be found. 
 
 The reader will doubtless have remarked that in the preceding 
 pages the localities referred to — Tuscany and Umbria — are 
 situated in Central and Northern Italy ; it is in those districts, 
 indeed, wherein stood the various centres of Maiolica production 
 which sprung into existence at the dawn of the Renaissance 
 epoch. Yet in Southern Italy modern civilization had deve- 
 loped earlier and more rapidly than in the Northern provinces. 
 Poetry and literature were more successfully cultivated at Naples, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 Salerno, and Palermo than in Tuscany ; life seems to have been 
 richer and more splendid and culture more elegant and refined. 
 Neither was art lacking in productive energy. The cathedrals and 
 monuments still remaining at the cities of Apulia, at Benevento, 
 and in Sicily, adorned with the masterwork of sculpture, mosaics, 
 and painting, testify to the trained ability and inventive faculty 
 of their creators. The textile fabrics of Sicily are famous, their 
 silk stands first among the productions of European looms ; in 
 metal work and ivory carving the artistic capacity is equally 
 conspicuous. It is therefore singular to find that the pottery in 
 the period referred to appears to be unknown and is scarcely 
 ever mentioned even by the national writers. Since the country 
 included the districts colonized by the Greeks in ancient times it 
 might be supposed that the artistic proclivities of the race which 
 in antiquity had been famous for its ceramic art, would have 
 manifested itself in their descendants ; all that can be said is, that 
 if it did so the results in this direction are still to be discovered. 
 Sicily was under Arab rulers for more than a couple of centuries, 
 but no authentic traces of a native ceramic art of Oriental deriva- 
 tion have yet been found ; the possible explanation being that the 
 Mussulman conquerors were naturally in intimate political and 
 commercial relationship with their kindred in Egypt, Syria, and 
 Spain, and would import their pottery from those lands where it 
 was produced of high quality and in infinite variety; the Arabs 
 themselves, as is well known, being of all races the most 
 destitute of artistic ability *. There is an equal probability that 
 the provinces on the mainland would have obtained their wares 
 
 * It would be as rash to deny that no artistic pottery was made in Sicily 
 during the Arab dominion as it is to assert that certain vases both in lustred 
 and ordinary faience, termed in some Museum catalogues " Siculo-Arab," came 
 from the island potteries. Recent research shows that there can be no reason- 
 able doubt of their Spanish, Egyptian, and Syrian derivation, and that they 
 were therefore imported into Sicily as articles of commerce. The distinguished 
 Director of the Palermo Museum, Coram. Prof. Salinas, once told the writer 
 that he had found no evidence of the existence of potteries of the Arab period 
 in Sicily. 
 
XX11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from the same source, and to such an extent as to sap and destroy 
 the native industry. That the South Italians were not devoid of the 
 faculty of fabricating works of ceramic art of the first quality is 
 proved by the ware known as Capo di Monte. It is true that its 
 design betrays the artificial taste of the XVIIIth century, but it 
 displays executive and technical ability of the first order. It was 
 unfortunate only in coming so late into the world. And if further 
 evidence is required to show the inherent capacity of the race it is 
 furnished by the wall-tiles and vases made today at the Technical 
 School at Naples. Excavations in Southern Italy having for their 
 object the elucidation of the history of Christian art have hitherto 
 been rare ; when they come to be prosecuted in a true scientific 
 spirit it is possible they may reveal to us the remains of a ceramic 
 art of great excellence, and containing also motives of graceful 
 ornamentation such as would naturally spring from the imagina- 
 tions of a race of artists bred in that land of poetry and romance, 
 and where nature is seen under her loveliest aspect. 
 
ETRUSCAN POTTERY. 
 
 r rHE illustrations included in figs. 1-12 are given as specimens 
 of the ordinary household vessels in use among the ancient 
 Etruscans and are only intended to represent them from one point 
 of view, that of their general shapes. They are of the class, 
 previously mentioned, whereof some examples could not fail to 
 have come under the observation of the Italian potters and, as will 
 be seen later on, influenced the forms of their own wares. For 
 the more ornate styles the numerous illustrated volumes on 
 Etruscan wares may be consulted, and the originals themselves are 
 well represented in some of the principal national museums. From 
 these, the originals or engravings, can likewise be studied the 
 development of the different ornamental motives employed by the 
 ceramic artists, and especially those varieties of relief-ornament 
 for which the Etruscans had a marked predilection. All the 
 present examples have been selected from the Etruscan Museum 
 at Florence and from the Etruscan collection in the Villa Papa 
 Guilio, at Rome ; they were sketched from the vases as they stood 
 in the glass cases, and as it is not customary in Italian Museums 
 to affix descriptive labels to their contents their dimensions cannot 
 be obtained unless at a loss of time not always convenient. 
 However, it may be sufficient in this instance to state that the 
 vessels were of the usual size of such objects. The illustrations 
 are designed mainly for future reference, but as the Etruscan 
 influence had to be considered in an early stage of the enquiry, it 
 seemed appropriate to include the following series in the present 
 volume. 
 
ETRUSCAN POTTERY. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
ETRUSCAN POTTERY. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 Fig. 7. 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 B2 
 
ETRUSCAN POTTERY. 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 ft©. 10. 
 
 Fia.ll. 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM THE ROMAN FORUM. 
 
 TT has been stated above that continuity in the case of artistic 
 pottery produced in the Italian territory in antiquity was arrested 
 at the fall of the Roman Empire. Fortunately, however, in the 
 case of one comparatively unpretentious although at the same time 
 picturesque ware, and which was evidently popular at Rome during 
 the Middle Ages, its lineage can be traced back to Imperial times 
 and likewise to highly distinguished parentage. The objects in 
 question, figs. 15-21, are one of the fruits of the excavations now 
 being prosecuted with such remarkable care and intelligence by 
 Comra. Giacomo Boni, at the Roman Forum *, Those hitherto 
 discovered are boccali in a coarse red body and are covered with 
 a lead glaze, either colourless or green, more rarely the latter ; 
 the ornamentation is in relief, consisting of small bosses arranged 
 in lines, in some cases they are combined with a simple graffito 
 decoration. It will be observed that the relief-ornament is similar 
 to that on fig. 14, one of a small series of glazed vases found in a 
 Christian tomb at Tharros, in Sardinia : they are now in the British 
 Museum f. The date of the tomb is determined by coins of Justinian 
 and Heraclius found along with the vases and other objects, hence 
 the whole may be assigned to the early Vllth century. The 
 ancient ware of which both these groups are a continuation has a 
 red body, a green or a common lead glaze, and the ornamentation in 
 relief, the latter being composed either of figures, scroll-work, or 
 imbrications ; in each class their execution is often of extreme 
 
 * The first examples of this class were found along with fragments of stone- 
 carving (attributed by Comm. Boni to the VMth-IXth centuries) in a Mediaeval 
 well. Some of the others found elsewhere may, however, belong to a later 
 period ; they will doubtless all be illustrated in the comprehensive work on the 
 excavations at the Forum now in course of preparation. 
 
 t See the British Museum Catalogue of Engraved Glems, 1888, p. 14. 
 
6 MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM THE ROMAN FORUM. 
 
 delicacy and precision, although sometimes in the later examples 
 the applied figures, usually representing Hercules, are rough and 
 slovenly. Specimens of the late classic period have been found at 
 Rome and Southern Italy, likewise it is stated at Cyprus and 
 Egypt, and of early Christian or possibly Mussulman times in 
 Egypt and in the recent German excavations at Priene. The 
 nearest analogies to the ware are the moulded vases that have 
 been found in Greece and Italy and the red Aretine pottery with 
 relief-ornament, of the period of Augustus ; the difference of style, 
 colour, and glaze point, however, to another locality and a posterior 
 period of production. There are also obvious analogies of shape 
 with glass and silver cups made in Syria and Egypt in late Roman 
 times. A few examples of the ware of the classic period are in 
 the Vase Gallery at the Louvre — see Rayet et Collignon : Histoire 
 de la Ceramique Grec, 1888, pi. 14. fig. 140 — a more copious 
 representation of the art may be consulted in the British Museum *. 
 It contains likewise two vases of the same period and technique 
 in lead glaze bearing graffito ornament alone, showing that the 
 method was practised at the time the relief-ornament on lead glazed 
 pottery was in fashion. 
 
 The numerous boccali found by Sig. Boni may suggest that 
 they come from a Roman pottery in the city itself or its immediate 
 neighbourhood, and that these vessels were made in the same 
 locality from whence the older ware was derived. The supposition 
 is not without warrant, seeing that many strong and serviceable 
 wares, which were at the same time agreeable to the eye and 
 pleasant to the touch, have sometimes maintained an existence 
 prolonged over centuries ; at the same time, until proof is forth- 
 coming it cannot be definitely accepted as a Roman ware ; equally 
 plausible reasons might be put forward for assigning it to Central 
 or even to Southern Italy. It is, indeed, premature to assert 
 
 * The series will be included in the forthcoming volume of the British 
 Museum Catalogue of the moulded Terra-cotta Vases. The writer is informed 
 that Mr. Murray proposes giving illustrations in colour of the glazed ware. 
 
MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM THE KOMAN FORUM. 7 
 
 any positive conclusions respecting objects so recently discovered, 
 and whereof these appear to be the only known examples of their 
 time — and also until that time has been determined. Along with 
 the boccali was found another of a totally different body, yet of 
 somewhat similar shape, fig. 22 ; it is a shape which appears in 
 vessels represented in the small sculptured panel of the Physician, 
 see fig. 77, on the Capanile del Duomo, at Florence, and dating 
 from towards the end of the first half of the XlVth century. The 
 spouts in the relief are somewhat curved, whilst in the Forum piece 
 the spout is straight. Some of the spouts in the glazed boccali 
 are flattened and are similar in shape to those on the painted 
 boccali found in the forum, fig. 55, and others found in the Tiber. 
 This form appears to be one, so far as the known examples show, 
 to which the Mediaeval Romans were rather partial. None of the 
 early Faventine boccali illustrated in Prof. Argnani's works has 
 this shaped spout ; it is seen, however, in the boccale from 
 Perugia, fig. 44. The writer is informed that the early Peruvian 
 archives contain references to the " arti " of the figullini and 
 boccalini, hence Prof. Moretti's boccale is probably a specimen of 
 a native ware, and that may have been sent to the Roman 
 market. 
 
 Respecting the lead-glazed boccali : — where the glaze has no 
 positive green in its composition the general colour of the vessel is 
 a kind of variegated yellow, a suggestion of raw siena with a 
 greenish tinge. Jt is uneven in tint, and the surface has small 
 hollows and elevations, arising from the body not having been 
 thoroughly levigated, likewiss the glaze has bubbled. On exam- 
 ining a broken piece it is seen that the inner half of the thickness 
 of the body is red, of a tolerable clearness, whilst the outer half is a 
 dull grey, arising from the iron in this portion not having become 
 properly oxidized ; this has happened from the glaze covering the 
 exterior of the vessel, and also because the temperature of the 
 furnace was low. Hence the uncertainty in the colour of the 
 different specimens of the ware. Mr. William De Morgan, noting 
 
8 MEDIEVAL POTTERY FROM THE ROMAN FORUM. 
 
 these circumstances, placed a fragment of the pottery in one of his 
 furnaces, giving it " a slight warming according to our ideas of 
 heat," with the result that the undecided greenish yellow became a 
 kind of subdued orange, the colour of the body throughout. The 
 dull grey in the outer half of the body has disappeared, and the 
 glaze is even in tint. The general colour is, indeed, now similar 
 to that of an askos of the classical period belonging to the writer. 
 The object in this case is well potted, that is, the body has been 
 carefully ground, the glaze evenly applied, not running into tears 
 as in the Tharros vase (fig. 13), and the firing has been at a proper 
 temperature. That the mediaeval pieces are what we should now 
 rail badly potted is evident. It does not, however, follow that this 
 happened from the inability of the potter to do otherwise. It may 
 be so. Yet it is possible that the taste of the period preferred 
 broken tints and unequal surfaces in their pottery. There are 
 many persons holding these opinions at the present day. They are 
 those who decline to admit that the crowning triumph of ceramic 
 art is to turn out a thousand gross of plates in one order exactly 
 alijce in every particular. They might even say that the experi- 
 ment with the Roman Forum specimen having been once made in 
 the interest of science, they would be satisfied that the rest of 
 Sig. Boni's find should not pass through Mr. De Morgan's fiery 
 furnace; and while agreeing that the stately relic of Imperial 
 times, the askos, displayed admirable qualities of design and 
 technique, yet that its chief excellence did not consist in the 
 unvarying uniformity of its colour. 
 
 Whilst on the subject of the very early glazed wares reference 
 may be made to the plate in the Museum of Cividale in Friuli, ou 
 account of its description by Lazari * having misled some writers 
 on Italian ceramic art. Lazari states that the plate bears an 
 inscription in Lombard characters of the VHIth century. The 
 
 * See Lazari : Notizia delle opere d'Arte e di Antichita della Raccolta 
 Correr, di Venezia, 1859, p. 42. 
 
XBDL&VAL POTTERY FROM THE ROMAN* FORUM. U 
 
 inscription in fact being in Italian capitals of the XVth century, 
 arranged, as they often are, in letters of different sizes and with 
 the spelling abbreviated. It stands, as near, as can be represented 
 in ordinary capitals, thus — AtRIOAmER ; the vertical line in the 
 first R is prolonged upwards and terminates with a stroke which 
 may be intended for T. This is an example of the mistakes 
 arising from the absence of illustrations in the works of many 
 Italian writers on their ceramic art. 
 
10 
 
 Fig. 13.— TWO-HANDLED VASE. The flattened handles grooved, flat 
 at foot. Light red body. Lead glaze ; green outside, yellow inside. 
 The tears on the lip produced by the glaze running down when the vase 
 was fired mouth downwards. (Found in a Christian tomb at Tharros, 
 in Sardinia.) H. 16 cm. British Museum. 
 
11 
 
 Fig. 14.— CUP WITH HANDLE. Rounded handle, concave at foot. 
 Light red body. Lead glaze ; green inside and outside. Ornament in 
 relief. (Found with fig. 13.) H. 8 cm. British Museum. 
 
12 
 
 Fig. 15.— PORTION OF A BOCCALE. Flat handle ornamented with 
 small bosses. Light red body. Lead glaze, yellow-green in colour. 
 (The colour is of the tint and quality described in the preceding text ; 
 the same may be said of the rest of the series.) Ornament in relief 
 and in graffito. (Found in Roman Forum.) H. 38 cm. 
 
 Forum Museum, Rome- 
 
13 
 
 Fig. 16.— BOCCALE. Handle similar to fig. 15, flat at foot. Light red 
 body. Lead glaze, greenish yellow in colour. Ornament in relief and 
 in giaffito. (Found with fig. 15.) 15 cm. Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
14 
 
 Fig. 17.— BOCCALE. Flat at foot. Light red body, lead glaze, yellow 
 green in colour. Ornament in graffito. (Found with the preceding.) 
 H. 20 cm. Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
 Fig. 18.— BOCCALE. The handle ridged, flat at foot. Light red body. 
 Lead glaze, yellow colour. Ornament in relief. (Found in a well, 
 VHIth-IXth cent., in Roman Forum.) H. 13 cm. 
 
 Forum Museum, Rome, 
 
15 
 
 Fig. 19.— BOCCALE. Flat at foot. Light red body. Lead glaze, yellow- 
 green in colour. (Found in Roman Forum.) H. 15 cm. 
 
 Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
 Fio. 20.— THREE-HANDLED BOCCALE. Spout broken, ridged at 
 neck, flat at foot. Light red body. Lead glaze, deep and pale 
 yellow in colour. (Found with fig. 19.) H. 19 cm. 
 
 Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
16 
 
 Fig. 21. — BOCCALE. Spout broken, flat at foot. Light red body. Lead 
 glaze, deep yellow in colour. Ornament in relief. (Found with 
 fig. 18.) H. 23 cm. Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
 Fig. 22.— BOCCALE. Flat at foot. "Wbite body. Unglazed. Carefully 
 finished. (Found with fig. 18.) H. 24 cm. 
 
 Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
17 
 GRAFFITO POTTERY. 
 
 TN the general advance made by the Italian ceramists after they 
 had mastered the preliminary technical difficulties of their art 
 they turned their attention, among other matters, to perfecting the 
 graffito process of ornamentation. The method had been success- 
 fully practised by the Egyptians, both in ancient times and during 
 the Mahommedan era. It affords the ceramist the opportunity of 
 displaying some of the most captivating chromatic qualities of his 
 art ; it also permits a vigorous and forcible presentation, more so 
 even than the painted design. When skilfully handled a peculiar 
 brilliance and richness of effect may be attained by the judicious 
 opposition of the crisp, sparkling lights and lines of actual shadow 
 playing over the glazed surface of the pottery. The scheme of 
 colour in the early work of the Byzantine period comprised two 
 tints of yellow, but capable of considerable modification, tending 
 either towards the retiring modesty of the pale primrose tint, or to 
 the almost aggressive assertion of the orange and golden browns 
 of the sunflower. The harmony was often extended by passages 
 of transparent green, manganese, and raw-sienna floated into the 
 general glaze. Pieces like the circular Plaque in the Museum at 
 Padua, the Bowl supported by three lions at the Louvre, and the 
 South Kensington Dish, having in the centre the mandoline player 
 with two other figures, show in their different ways the high 
 capabilities of the method. 
 
 It was probably produced in many places ; two cities, however, 
 can alone be named by the writer with certainty, these being 
 Padua and Faenza. The proof is furnished by unfinished frag- 
 ments having been turned up in local excavations. The Faventine 
 examples are in the collection of Prof. Argnani * ; those from 
 
 * See Argnani : II Rinasciinento delle Ceramiche Maiolicale in Faenzs, 
 1895, pi. v. 
 
 C 
 
18 GRAFFITO POTTERY. 
 
 Padua (fragments only) are in the British Museum and South 
 Kensington Museum ; doubtless, however, there are similar spe- 
 cimens in other collections. The above examples date from the 
 XVth century, to which period probably belong most of the earlier 
 pieces hitherto found in excavations. Those in a single colour, a 
 dull green, given in Plate III. of Prof. Argnani's work, ' II Rinas- 
 cimento delle Ceramiche Maolicale/ are attributed by him to the 
 preceding century, and when still earlier specimens are brought to 
 light it is likely that they also will frequently only be glazed in a 
 single colour. The evidence as to date in figs. 23-33 is mainly 
 that of style, not a very safe guide in the case of early graffito 
 wares. But there is some confirmatory testimony forthcoming 
 respecting the Turin group, which was found during the restor- 
 ations executed at the Palazzo Madama in that city, in recent 
 years : the objects were discovered in the portion of the Palace 
 which is believed to have been built in 1460, hence they may be 
 fairly assigned to the XVth century. To the same period will 
 probably belong the Paduan group, figs. 23-28. In the case of 
 fig. 26, the similarity of the central ornament to the Hotel Cluny 
 Plaque, dated 1475, leaves little doubt that it likewise was made 
 in the XVth century, the time when St. Bernardino (1380-1444) 
 of Siena introduced the cult of the Sacred Monogram ; the Saint 
 was in the habit of exhibiting when preaching a tablet whereon 
 was depicted the Sacred Monogram surrounded by golden rays. 
 
 As to fig. 34, which is of uncertain provenance, the writer can 
 indicate no similar ware. The motive of the fish swimming with 
 sprays in their mouths recalls the fish having lotus flowers in their 
 mouths of the ancient Egyptian pottery, and the bird in the centre 
 suggests an Oriental derivation. The other objects of the Milan 
 group are said to have been found with Roman remains; but this 
 may have happened from the ground having been moved in 
 modern times, and the remains of different periods thus becoming 
 mixed ; or the workmen may have placed in a common heap the 
 objects found in different places. 
 
19 
 
 &G. 23.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Trilobed at neck, flat-handled, 
 ornamented with two wavy lines, flat at foot. Litrht red body. 
 Ornament in graffito, painted in green and yellow on warm white 
 ground. II. 16 cm. Museum at Padua. 
 
 o2 
 
20 
 
 Fig. 24.— BOCCALE IN SHAPE OF ANIMAL. Mezza-maiolica. A 
 similar shape is found in the ceramic art of antiquity and in Spanish- 
 Moorish ware. The orifice for pouring in the liquid at the tail is 
 broken, also at the head. Light red body. Ornament in graffito, 
 painted in green and yellow on toned white ground. H. 13 cm. 
 
 Museum at Padua. 
 
21 
 
 Fig. 25 — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Hollow foot. Light red body. 
 Ornament in graffito, painted in green and yellow on warm white 
 ground. D. 14 cm. Museum at Padua. 
 
Fin. 20. — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Light red body. Ornament in 
 
 5raffito, painted in green and yellow on toned white ground. (From 
 'adua.) D. 14 cm. British Museum. 
 
 J 
 
23 
 
 Fig. 27. — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Light red body. Ornament in 
 graffito, painted in green and yellow on toned white ground. (From 
 Padua.) D. 13 cm. British Museum. 
 
u 
 
 Fig. 28. — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Light red body. Ornament in 
 graffito, painted in green and yellow on toned white ground. The 
 object was probably a wine-cup belonging to a tavern which had the 
 sign of the Lion d'Or. (From Padua.) D. 12 cm. British Museum. 
 
25 
 
 Fig. 29. — BACILE. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. Ornament in graffito, 
 painted in green on toned white ground. (Found in excavations at the 
 Palazzo Madama.) D. 26 cm. Palazzo Madama, Turin. 
 
26 
 
 Fig. 30. — BACILE. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. Ornament in graffito, 
 painted in green and yellow on toned white ground. Compare with 
 fig. 2 in preceding volume on the Oriental Influence. (Found along 
 with fig. 29.) D. 24 cm. Palazzo Madama. Turin. 
 
27 
 
 Fig. 31. — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. Ornament in 
 graffito, on yellow ground. (Found with fig. 29.) D. 13 cm. 
 
 Palazzo Madama, Turin. 
 
28 
 
 Fig. 32. — PLATE. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. Graffito ornament on 
 
 Seen ground. Much covered with iridescence. (Found with preceding.) 
 , 18 cm. Palazzo Madama, Turin. 
 
29 
 
 Fig. 33.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Trilobed at mouth, flat handle. 
 Ornament in graffito, painted in green and manganese on white ground. 
 
 Bargello, Florence. 
 
30 
 
 Fig. 34.— PLATE. Mezza-maiolica. Hollow foot. Red body. Orna- 
 ment in graffito, painted in green and yellow on a yellowish ground. 
 Carefully executed. Provenance unknown. D. 20 cm. 
 
 Milan Museum. 
 
31 
 
 PAINTED POTTERY. 
 
 r ^HE faience illustrated in figs. 35-76 represents certain types o£ 
 Maiolica and Mezza-maiolica in painted ornament, made by the 
 Italian potters at what is believed to be the time of the first intro- 
 duction of the art into Italy. The technical qualities displayed all 
 indicate the practice of an art in its primitive stage. Occasionally 
 the vessels are well " thrown/' generally, however, their manipula- 
 tion is wanting in finish and their shapes are frequently unsym- 
 metrical. On putting one's hand inside them the ridges caused by 
 the pressure of the potter's fingers on the plastic clay while it 
 turned on the wheel are unmistakably evident — it is a " touch of a 
 vanish'd hand " across the centuries. Even the exteriors will show 
 the same ridges in a less degree, the inequalities imparting a soft 
 variation of light and shade which is agreeable rather than other- 
 wise to the eye. Further examining the vessel one may see the 
 mark of the finger and thumb which held it while it was being 
 dipped in the glaze, or turning it upside down we note the 
 diminishing curves made by the string by which it was cut off the 
 wheel. The wares, indeed, abound in those picturesque accidents 
 which endear them to the student of history, but which it is to be 
 feared would incur the severest censure of the Staffordshire manu- 
 facturer if present in the wares of today. He would especially 
 condemn the inequality of the glaze, and as to the poverty of the 
 palette, it was so deplorable as to be quite beneath the notice of a 
 self-respecting man of business. 
 
 It must be confessed there are here no hints of the facile drawing 
 or the striking arrangements of brilliant colour displayed on an 
 immaculate glaze, with a dash and bravura arising from perfect 
 training on the most approved scientific principles, which is 
 characteristic of the finished performance of the artistic athletes 
 of the XVIth century Here all is modest and unpretending. 
 
32 PAINTED TOTTERY. 
 
 We are reminded of the reticence and austerity of the old Etruscan 
 design. Yet not infrequently accompanied with an artless grace 
 which is very naif and pathetic. These early essays have also the 
 interest of themselves telling something of their own story, but it 
 is perhaps only the practical potter and the chemist who will 
 divine the whole of its meaning. Some portion of it is apparent 
 to all, the record of baffled efforts, of strenuous endeavour, and of 
 difficulties overcome may be read as plainly on the surface of these 
 fragile objects, which have been hidden some five hundred years 
 in the earth, as if it came straight from the lips of the potters. 
 
 The vessels have been found in the course of excavations made 
 for building purposes, in river-beds and at the bottom of ancient 
 wells *. They appear all to have come to light within the last 
 twenty years, or if any had previously turned up they were un- 
 noticed. Their discovery is mainly due to the modern spirit of 
 enquiry which was not satisfied with the lax method of the former 
 historians of the art. Among those by whom the search has been 
 most successfully prosecuted are Prof. F. Argnani and the late 
 Dr. Funghini ; to their diligence and intelligent curiosity the 
 student will always remain deeply indebted for shedding light on 
 
 * Dr. Funghini states that he found boccali in wells, in 1885, at a place 
 called Saione, in the neighbourhood of Arezzo, at Maccagnolo, a village near 
 Arezzo, and at Monterchi in the valley of the Tiber. The vases were arranged 
 in strata and were in each case covered with a flat stone, the object being to 
 clarify the water, as pebbles from a river are now put into wells for the same 
 purpose. At Monterchi there were as many as six layers, the lower represent- 
 ing earlier, the upper later wares : Dr. Funghini attributes the vessels in the 
 top stratum to Montelupo ; the evidence he offers, however, is not convincing. 
 See Funghini, Osservazioni e Rilievi sulle antiche Fabriche di Maiolica in 
 Toscana, 1891. Some of these boccali, which are intact and whereon the 
 originally white glaze is still lustrous, are now perfectly black, the ornamenta- 
 tion showing only by a slightly perceptible extra shine on the surface where it 
 has been. In other cases the white has changed to a leaden grey, the dis- 
 coloration having arisen from the chemical action of certain properties in the 
 water. The pottery which has lain buried in the earth, as that found at Faenza, 
 seems to have changed very slightly in colour. 
 
PAINTED POTTERY. 33 
 
 what had hitherto been the most obscure passage in the history of 
 the national art. It was obscure because the historians had 
 neglected the principal source from which the materials for their 
 work could be obtained, namely, the actual objects. These they 
 could not cite, consequently they were reduced to barren con- 
 jectures on what was purely imaginary, or they amused themselves 
 with sterile discussion respecting that which was unimportant. To 
 take an instance : one favourite subject of controversy related to the 
 invention of the stanniferous glaze, which the writers assumed to 
 have been discovered in Italy. It was a question which had a really 
 important bearing on the history of the evolution of the art, but its 
 solution was entirely a matter for experts — for chemists and 
 practical potters. Instead of obtaining this expert opinion, for 
 which, indeed, it would have been necessary first to produce the 
 pottery, the learned authors built up, in their libraries, theories of 
 the most ingenious construction, basing their arguments on the 
 writings of other learned authors, equally ingenious yet also 
 equally disdainful of the only kind of research which would be 
 fruitful and profitable. It should be mentioned that the contro- 
 versy had also a humorous side, tin glaze was in well-understood 
 application by the Oriental ceramists a couple of hundred years 
 before Luca della Robbia (who was generally but, of course, erro- 
 neously assumed to be its inventor) was born. 
 
 There have not yet been discovered any contemporary documents 
 whereby the following boccali and scodelli can be exactly dated, 
 but judging from the style of their decoration, as in the Mediaeval 
 letters painted upon them, the motives of ornamentation, and the 
 heraldic devices they bear, they may be assigned with some degree 
 of probability to the end of the XlVth and the early part of the 
 XVth centuries. A few of the fragments and boccali found in 
 excavations at Faenza bear the Manfredi arms * ; hence there can 
 
 * See Argxani : Maioliche Faentine, 1839, plate v. fig. 3. Prof. Arguani 
 states the Manfredi arms painted on the boccale are of the end of the XlVth 
 century, 
 
 1) 
 
34 PAINTED POTTERY. 
 
 be little doubt of their being made for the use of the reigning 
 princely family. In the case of others whereon are painted letters, 
 probably the initial letters of Faventine citizens, the evidence is 
 not forthcoming which will identify the particular individuals. 
 So likewise with the arms or badges of religious confraternities, 
 whereof perhaps fig. 37 is an example. It was the custom, as will 
 be subsequently shown in illustrations of a more advanced ware, 
 for hospitals, like that of Sta. Maria Nuova, at Florence, and 
 La Scala, at Siena, to have their devices painted on the pottery of 
 their pharmacies. Ecclesiastical dignitaries also had their arms 
 displayed on the dishes, etc. of their table service. Hence it may 
 be expected that when the representation of these early wares is 
 larger, useful hints for dating and identification may be obtained 
 from this source. 
 
 Further assistance towards the chronological arrangement of the 
 early wares may be derived from observing the quality of the 
 colours wherein the ornament is painted. It will be noted that 
 some are painted in two colours only, namely, manganese and 
 a bright but not deep copper-green, and these are found on the 
 vessels which from their technique and design may fairly be con- 
 cluded to belong to the earliest work. Then, maintaining the 
 same criterion, as the executive ability advances it is seen that a 
 pale yellow, as in fig. 40, and a blue (fig. 76) are added to the 
 former colours. The cobalt appears to have been of impure 
 quality and to have been applied thickly; it is sometimes scarcely 
 to be distinguished from a solid black, afterwards, however, it is 
 lighter in tint and is applied thinly, as a wash. Later on comes 
 an orange, then a deep red, until finally the full power of the 
 Maiolica palette is attained. There will, of course, be instances 
 of overlapping, some potteries being in advance of others in 
 technical knowledge, hence it may not always be possible to 
 determine the relative advancement of the art in various cities, or 
 even of different potteries in the same city. The graffiti wares 
 appear to have been coloured in the primitive green (oxide of 
 
TAINTED TOTTERY. 35 
 
 copper), manganese, and transparent yellow (oxide of iron) for 
 some time after the palette used for the painted wares had reached 
 its full scope. 
 
 Considering the comparatively limited training of the potters at 
 this period it is not surprising that they attempted little in the 
 style of relief-ornament. Two pieces alone have fallen within the 
 cognizance of the writer — the one being the boccale illustrated in 
 Prof. Argnani's ' II Kinascimento,' plate viii. figs. 1, 3; the other is 
 the boccale with the female head and the two ornamented bosses 
 in the Arezzo Museum, fig. 51. Both are specially interesting 
 from showing the early form of a method which was extensively 
 practised by the immediately succeeding schools of ceramic art in 
 Italy. The Arezzo example was acquired by the Director of the 
 Museum, Signor Comm. G. J. Gamurrini, at Cortona, and it is 
 possible that it came from a pottery at that city. That the art was 
 practised there is known from Vasari's biography of his great- 
 grandfather, Lazzaro Vasari. The Vasari family were originally 
 from Cortona, their calling being that of potters, hence their name. 
 According to the biographer, Lazzaro himself was a painter and 
 an intimate friend and companion of Piero della Francesca, both 
 working at Arezzo at the same time, Lazzaro finally settling there; 
 his brothers, however, remained at their native city. Vasari's 
 account of his ancestors and their doings is somewhat vague ; 
 there appears, however, to be confirmatory evidence that his 
 family came from Cortona and were potters. The female head in 
 the Arezzo boccale is in its modest way suggestive of the Piero 
 della Francesca type, and it is not improbable that all forms of art, 
 including the ceramic, practised at Cortona were more or less 
 influenced by the illustrious Master of Borgo San Sepolcro. 
 
 By the kindness of Dr. Otto von Falke, Director of the Cologne 
 Museum and author of the excellent Handbook on Maiolica issued 
 by the Berlin Museum, the writer is enabled to give an illustration 
 of the celebrated so-called Cup of St. Francis (1182-1226) pre- 
 served in the Church of the Minorite Friars at Cologne. The cup 
 
36 PAINTED POTTERY. 
 
 was fractured during the last century, and was then set in silver, 
 having engraved ornament of the period of Louis XVth ; the 
 silver hiding the handles and the outside of the cup. Dr. von 
 Falke states the interior of the cup is covered with a thin and finely 
 crackled tin glaze of a cream-white colour, the design of the 
 instruments of the Passion of Our Lord being painted in man- 
 ganese and green. The tradition at Cologne is that the scodello is 
 the actual drinking-cup of St. Francis. There are, however, no 
 documents proving the fact earlier than the XVIth century. 
 Judging from the technique and style of drawing, Dr. von Falke 
 believes the object is Italian and may possibly be of the XlVth 
 century, which appears to the writer to be, so far as our present 
 knowledge stands, certainly the earliest period to which it may be 
 assigned. The oldest dated representation of a similar motive in 
 Maiolica, although in that instance including the figure of our 
 Lord, is the plate at Sevres inscribed DON GIORGIO. 1485. 
 The cup cannot, of course, be accepted as having belonged to 
 St. Francis ; it has nevertheless an historic interest similar to 
 that of the pottery bearing the Sacred Monogram, the motive in 
 that case being inspired by the preaching of St. Bernardino at 
 a known period. It may have been thus with the Passion pottery, 
 it also synchronising with a revivalist movement, but not the one 
 in which St. Francis was the moving spirit, more probably one at 
 the end of the XVth century, and which would make the Cologne 
 cup a contemporary of the Sevres plate. 
 
 The fragment found in 1890 among the ruins of the Abbey of 
 the Sagra di San Michele (fig. 67) has all the elements of the 
 technique, design, and colour of the wares under consideration, and 
 must therefore be classed in the same category. The ornamental 
 motive is, however, more elaborate and the drawing more precise 
 than one usually finds in these wares, so that it may perhaps be 
 taken as a unique example of the most advanced work of its kind. 
 Its accidental discovery suggests the wealth of material for the 
 history of Maiolica now lying hidden beneath the soil in Italy. 
 
PAINTED TOTTERY. 37 
 
 The native writers on the subject are fond of indulging in regrets 
 that the beautiful wares of old times now adorn only the collections 
 of the u stranieri." The regret is certainly well founded. It 
 happened that in the swing of the pendulum, and in matters of 
 taste in Italy the swing is apt to have a strong impulsion, the 
 master-work of the XVth and XVIth centuries lost much of its 
 interest in the eyes of the Italian dilettanti of the succeeding time, 
 whilst many of the foreign, especially the English, connoisseurs 
 maintained their admiration for the art of the Renaissance, gladly 
 buying what the Italians willingly sold. However, while very 
 excusably lamenting his loss the Italian until lately has apparently 
 forgotten that the motherland still holds in her bosom a treasure 
 far richer than that captured by the foreigner, and which, when- 
 ever he chooses to unearth it, will enable him to write a history 
 that will be neither hesitating nor halting, because founded on 
 that kind of documentary evidence which is always the most 
 trustworthy. It should, however, be added in the interest of 
 science that the buried remains when brought to light ought to 
 be placed in the nearest Museum, Within the last half-dozen 
 years the writer has known two important collections of fragments, 
 together with some almost complete examples of early Maiolica, 
 which have disappeared, and all his efforts to trace them, for the 
 purpose of the present work, have proved entirely fruitless. It 
 would likewise be desirable for the Museums after acquiring 
 remains of this nature to publish them, or at least let it be known 
 that they possess them. 
 
as 
 
 Fig. 35.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Trilobed at mouth, fluted handle 
 turned up below. Pale buff body. Ornament, a mediaeval letter. 
 Much discoloured. (From the Castellani Sale.) H. 23 cm. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
ay 
 
 Fig. 36. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Similar to preceding, except that 
 it is less black. (From the Castellani Sale.) H. 16 cm. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
40 
 
 Fig. 37.— BOCCALE. Mezza-niaiollca. Trilobed at lip, handle fluted and 
 turned up at bottom, flat at foot. Tale buff body. Ornament drawn 
 in manganese, painted on white ground in green, the handle painted in 
 bars of green and manganese. The Xlllth Century, heater-shaped 
 shield may contain the device of a Confraternity. The slip and glaze 
 in this and in the majority of the boccali stop short some distance 
 above the foot of the vessel. (From Florence.) H. 22 cm. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
41 
 
 Fig. 38. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, detached flattened 
 spout, flat at foot. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, 
 painted on white ground in green, the leaf a brownish tint ; kind of 
 fleur-de-lis in green under spout, the handle barred with lines in man- 
 ganese. (Found in the bed of the Tiber, at Rome.) H. 19 cm. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
42 
 
 —-«'*« 
 
 i 
 
 Fig. 39. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, flattened spout, flat 
 at foot. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted on 
 white ground > n green, diagonal bands of green on handle. ("Found in 
 the Tiber, at Rome. ) H. 20 cm. British Museum. 
 
43 
 
 Fig. 40.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, detached flattened 
 spout, flat at foot. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, 
 painted on white ground in green and yellow. (Found in the Tiber, at 
 Rome.) H. 18 cm. British Museum. 
 
44 
 
 Fig. 41.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at top, flat at foot. Buff body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese, painted on white ground in green. 
 (Formerly belonged to Dr. Funghini.) H. 16 cm. Henry Wallis, 
 
45 
 
 Fig. 42.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at lip, flattened handle, flat at 
 foot. Pale red body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted on white 
 ground in green, diagonal lines of green on handle. (Formerly belonged 
 to Dr. Funghini.) H. 23 cm. Henry Wallis. 
 
46 
 
 Fig. 43.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at top, flattened handle, flat at 
 foot. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted on white 
 ground in green. (Formerly belonged to Dr. Funghini.) H. 23 cm. 
 
 Henry Wallis. 
 
47 
 
 Fig. 44. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular at mouth, flattened 
 spout joined to neck. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, 
 painted in green. (Found at Perugia.) Prof. Moretti. 
 
48 
 
 (The so-called Cup 
 
 Fig. 45.— SCODELLO WITH TWO HANDLES. 
 
 of St. Francis.) Maiolica. The body unknown, the outside of the cup 
 and the two handles being hidden under a silver mantle having Louis XV . 
 ornamentation. The inside of the cup is covered with a thin and finely 
 crackled glaze of a cream-white colour ; the ornament is drawn in 
 manganese and painted in green on a white ground. 1). 10 cm. 
 
 The Church of the Minorite Friars, Cologne. 
 
49 
 
 Fig. 45 a.— Drawing showing the shape of the CUP OF ST. FRANCIS. 
 
50 
 
 Fig. 46.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at mouth. White body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green and manganese on 
 white ground : the Manfredi arms displayed on the shield. (See 
 Argnani, Maioliche Faentine, 1889, plate iv. Copied by permission of 
 Prof. Argnani.) H. 27 cm. Faenza Museum. 
 
51 
 
 Fig. 47.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at mouth. Buff body. Orna- 
 ment drawn in manganese, painted in green and manganese on white 
 ground. This is the earliest representation of the human figure on 
 Maiolica known to the writer. (See Argnani, op. cit. plate xx. Copied 
 by permission of Prof. Argnani.) H. 27 cm. Signor A. Matteucci. 
 
 F'2 
 
52 
 
 Fig. 48.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at mouth. Bull body. Orna- 
 ment, a stag drawn in manganese, painted in green, covered with short 
 touches in manganese, one leg is cross-hatched, white ground. H. 15 cm. 
 
 Ravenna Museum. 
 
53 
 
 Fig. 49.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Trilobed at mouth. Red body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese on white ground. The vitreous glaze 
 covering the body, beneath the slip, makes it bright in colour. H. 18 cm. 
 
 Milan Museum. 
 
54 
 
 Fig. 50. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, flattened spout 
 attached at lip. Buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted 
 in green on white ground ; the rudimentary flowers on and beneath the 
 spout are common in an early Egyptian slip ware. H. 22 cm. 
 
 Bargello, Florence. 
 
55 
 
 Fig, 51, — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Trilobed at mouth, flat handla 
 (missing), the head and two bosses in relief and solid. Buff body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese,, painted in green on white ground. 
 (From Cortona.) H. 22 cm. Arezzo Museum. 
 
50 
 
 Fig. 52— PART OF A BOCCALE. Pale buff body. Ornament drawn 
 in manganese, painted in green on white ground. Signor S. Bardini. 
 
 Fig. .53.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Thin neck, projecting at lip, 
 globular belly, wide at foot. Light buff body. Ornament drawn in 
 manganese, painted in green on white ground. Signor S. Bardini. 
 
57 
 
 Fig. 54. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Narrow neck, projecting at lip, 
 flattened handle ; an Etruscan shape. Pale buff body. Ornament 
 drawn in manganese on white ground, the diamonds composed of thin 
 strokes. Signor S. Bardini. 
 
58 
 
 Fig. 55. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, flattened spout 
 (broken) joined to nock. Buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, 
 painted in green on white ground. (Found in the Basilica Emilia, in 
 the Roman Forum.) H. 24 cm. Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
59 
 
 Fig. 56. — BOCCALE. Maiolica. Circular top, wide foot, flattened handle. 
 Buff" body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green on white 
 ground. (Found in a tomb at Saint- Andre-de-Clermont, France.) 
 H. 135 mm. Musee de Sevres. 
 
60 
 
 Fig. 57.— BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Circular top, flattened handle, 
 detached flattened spout. Buff body. Ornament in manganese, painted 
 in green on white ground. (The examples belonging to Prince Liech- 
 tenstein have not been seen by the writer ; he is therefore obliged to 
 omit certain particulars in their description.) Prince Liechtenstein. 
 
61 
 
 Fig. 58. — BOCCALE. Maiolica. Circular top, flattened handle, slightly 
 projecting at foot. Prince Liechtenstein. 
 
62 
 
 Fig. 59.— BOCCALE. Maiolica (?). Trilobed at mouth. Buff body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green on white ground. 
 H. 17 cm. Musee de l'Hotel de Cluny. 
 
63 
 
 Fig. 60.— BOCCALE. Maiolica (?). Trilobed at mouth. Buff" body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green on white ground. 
 
 Prince Liechtenstein. 
 
64 
 
 Fig. 61.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at mouth. Buff body. Orna- 
 ment drawn in manganese, painted in green on white ground. H. 18 cm. 
 
 Henry Wallis. 
 
65 
 
 Fig. 62.— BOCCALE. Maiolica. Trilobed at month. Buff body. Orna- 
 ment drawn in manganese, painted in green on white ground. H. 15 cm. 
 
 Henry Wallis. 
 
 (• 
 
66 
 
 Fig. 63.— TWO-HANDLED JAR. Maiolica. Prince Liechtenstein. 
 
67 
 
 Ftg. 64. — BOCCALE. Maiolica. Circular top, cylindrical neck, globular 
 belly, wide at foot. Prince Liechtenstein. 
 
 G2 
 
 L^ 
 
68 
 
 Fig. 65. — BOCCALE. Mezza-maiolica. Small circular top continued 
 into long projecting spout, flat handle. Ornament originally painted on 
 white ground. The surface is now a uniform black, the ornament only 
 to be distinguished by a slight extra shine. H. 19 cm. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
JUi 
 
 Fig. 66. — PLATE. Buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, the flowers 
 painted in deep blue, the leaves, the wavy ornament, and scrolls on 
 rim in green on white ground ; back and edge of rim covered with a 
 yellow-green glaze. (Found in the Tiber.) D. 28 cm. 
 
 (361-83) South Kensington Museum. 
 
70 
 
 Fig. 67.— FRAGMENT (centre of a Plate). Red body. Ornament drawn 
 in dark manganese, painted in green on white' ground, quatrefoil 
 ornament on reverse. (Found at the Sagra di San. Michele, in 1890.) 
 
 Palazzo Madama, Turin. 
 
71 
 
 Fig. 68.— SCODELLO WITH TWO HANDLES (one missing). 
 Mezza-maiolica. Pale red body. Ornament drawn in manganese, 
 painted in green on white ground. (Found in excavation on the 
 Palatine Hill.) D. 11 cm. Museo delle Terme, Rome. 
 
72 
 
 Fig. 69.— SCODELLO. Maiolica. Pale red body. Ornament drawn in 
 manganese, painted in blue on white ground. (Found on the Palatine 
 Hill.) D. 12 cm. Museo delle Terme, Rome. 
 
73 
 
 Fig. 70. — SCODELLO. Mezza-maiolica. Pale red body. Ornament 
 drawn in manganese, painted in green on white ground : the ornament 
 is similar to that found on an Egyptian slip-ware. (Found in the 
 Tiber.) D. 12 cm. Museo delle Terme, Rome. 
 
74 
 
 Fig. 71.— SCODELLO WITH TWO HANDLES. Mezza-maiolica. 
 Pale red body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in blue on 
 white ground. (Found on the Palatine Hill.) D. 15 cm. 
 
 Museo delle Terme, Rcme. 
 
75 
 
 Fio. 72.— SCODELLO WITH TWO HANDLES. Mezza-maiolica. 
 Red body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green on white 
 ground. Museo delle Terme, Rome. 
 
76 
 
 r^p 
 
 Fig. 73.-SCODELLO WITH TWO HANDLES. Mezza-maiolica. 
 Buff body. Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in green on white 
 ground ; the centre leaf of fleur-de-lis in manganese, the side ones in 
 green. D. 19 cm. Baxgello, Florence. 
 
77 
 
 Fig. 74.— BACILE. Mezza-maiolica. Hollow foot. Pale buff body. 
 Ornament drawn in manganese, painted in blue, raw siena, and a yiale 
 yellow on white ground. D. 17 cm. Milan Museum. 
 
78 
 
 Fig. 75.— BACILE. Mezza-maiolica. Hollow foot. White body, the 
 glaze is only at the edge on the exterior. Ornament drawn in man- 
 ganese, painted in green on white ground. A strong likeness in this 
 and the preceding to Oriental ware — so much so, indeed, as to suggest a 
 doubt whether they are actually Italian : compare ornament with 
 tig. 94. 1). 17 cm. Milan Museum. 
 
79 
 
 VT7 
 
 Fig. 76.— SCODELLO. Maiolica. Buff body. Ornament painted in 
 blue, the small crosses in trellis-work, the line round centre, and the 
 outside touches in pale yellow, white ground. (From Faenza.) 
 D. 14 cm. British Museum. 
 
80 
 
 POTTERY REPRESENTED IN PICTURES 
 AND SCULPTURE. 
 
 r J^HE prospect of ever finding any illustrated description of the 
 ceramic art of the XlVtb or XVth centuries, written and drawn 
 at the period, is so remote that it needs only stating to be at once 
 abandoned as hopeless. The potters at that time were too busy 
 with their clay and their pigments to write for posterity. It is 
 not until the following century that we rind a Piccolpassi inditing 
 a treatise on his art. The most the earlier masters would set to 
 paper would be some receipts for the preparation of glazes or 
 colours, or perhaps jottings of motives of ornamentation and 
 sketches of shapes of vessels. These would be affixed to the walls 
 of the work-rooms and would perish when they had served their 
 purposes. Failing first-hand documents of this nature, some 
 valuable information may be derived from the contemporary 
 sculpture and pictorial art, wherein, naturally, representations of 
 vases would sometimes find a place. The subjects of the composi- 
 tions were generally taken from past history, but the accessories 
 introduced, the pottery, the armour, and frequently the dresses 
 represented, were those of the artist's own day. In the case of the 
 pottery, the shapes and ornament may have been sometimes gene- 
 ralized by the artists. Absolute exactitude in details was perhaps 
 not attempted, still it is evident the vessels depicted are not mere 
 fancies but are those the painter had himself seen, either in use or 
 for ornament. 
 
 Coming to particulars, there can be little doubt the jugs and 
 jars on the shelves in fig. 77 reproduce the actual pots a Physician 
 would have in his consulting-room. They have a genuine air 
 about them there is no mistaking. And what is known of the 
 pottery of the first half of the XlVth century confirms the 
 
POTTERY REPRESENTED IN PICTURES AND SCULPTURE. 81 
 
 impression *. Those familiar with the Ravenna mosaics will 
 remember that the few vessels introduced in them are Byzantine 
 in form, and probably, represent similar cups or vases in use at 
 Constantinople. The wine-jars from the Marriage at Cana panel, 
 in the Ravenna chair, fig. 78, are, however, designed on the lines 
 of amphorae in use in Italy during the classical period ; hence it is 
 possible the style was continued into the Byzantine period. 
 
 The boccali on fig. 79 portray the simple forms of jugs so 
 frequently found in the XV th century frescoes. They are usually 
 without ornament and suggest wares that are not glazed ; this 
 may, however, arise from the treatment not being naturalistic in 
 aim, or from the original frescoes having been repainted; it is 
 therefore only on the question of shape that their testimony is 
 valuable. In some instances the representation in the frescoes is 
 all that can be desired, as in the jug in the Pomposa composition 
 of the Miracle of S. Benedetto, fig. 81. We cannot of course say 
 whether the ware is in Maiolica or Mezza-maiolica, it is probably 
 the latter ; it displays, however, a freedom of drawing in the 
 ornament one hardly expects to find in Italian ceramic design of 
 the first half of the XlVth century, and hence it may be suggested 
 that it is a specimen of an imported Oriental ware. In German 
 paintings of the same century are sometimes introduced unmistak- 
 able Oriental vases, as in the Annunciation in the Cologne Gallery, 
 no. 117 f. The large vase with a lid in fig. 80, no. 4, from a 
 picture in the Siena Gallery, is also Oriental. If the conjecture 
 respecting the jug in the Pomposa fresco is well founded, then that 
 in Pietro Lorenzetti's picture on the Uffizi, fig. 80, no. 3, is also 
 probably Oriental ; or if not, since the picture dates from the first 
 
 * The panel from the series called the Seven Arts is in descriptions of the 
 Campanile usually termed the Potter (" L'arte di fabricare le stoviglie ") ; this 
 is an error. Other instances of the motive can be cited in the art of the period, 
 likewise the allusion to the examination being made by the Physician is common 
 in literature. 
 
 f See Henry Waixis : The Godman Collection, Persian Ceramic Art, 1893. 
 Appendix, plate xiii. fig. 4. 
 
 H 
 
82 POTTERY REPRESENTED IN PICTURES AND SCULPTURE. 
 
 half of the XlVth century, the actual Italian boccali that have 
 been discovered will belong to an earlier period than is at present 
 assigned to them. Again, in the case of no. b', fig. 80, which will 
 belong to the commencement of the same century, it is scarcely 
 likely that Siena produced in Duccio's time a ware as advanced in 
 shape or having ornament so elaborate. It would not, however, 
 be surprising if the vessels in Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Nativity of 
 the Virgin in the Siena Gallery, fig. 82, were made in the painter's 
 native city in the middle of the century ; their simple ornamenta- 
 tion is precisely what would be expected on Sienese pottery of that 
 time. That the Oriental metal vases were known at Siena is shown 
 from the vase and basin in the Birth of St. John the Baptist by 
 Paolo di Giovanni, in the gallery of that city. The elaborate gold 
 ewers in some Sienese pictures, as in the Annunciation by Simone 
 Martini and Lippo Memtni, in the Uffizi, and in an Ambrogio 
 Lorenzetti at the Siena Gallery, are designed on the lines of the 
 Mosul metal work, but whether copied directly from Oriental 
 objects it is perhaps impossible to determine. 
 
 From what has been stated it mxy fairly be inferred that the 
 early Sienese Maiolica mast have been of more than usual interest. 
 It is therefore to be regretted that apparently none of it has sur- 
 vived, the earliest being some few tiles from the library of the 
 Duomo and others from the palace of Pandolfo Petrucci, both 
 dating from the first decade of the XVIth century. The late 
 Bernardino Pepi, the druggist, who made some clever imitations 
 of the Petrucci tiles, told the writer that he remembered other and 
 earlier tiles in the Sienese churches, all which were removed and 
 thrown away by the architects at the time the edifices were restored. 
 Probably these particular pieces may never be recovered, but 
 intelligent search within or outside the city might at least find 
 some remains of the native potteries of the first period of the 
 Renaissance. 
 
83 
 
 Fig. 77.— THE PHYSICIAN. Alto-relievo on the Campanile del Duomo, 
 Florence. Attributed to Giotto and Andrea Piaano, 
 
 h2 
 
84 
 
 Fig. 78. — AMPHOR/E from a panel in the pastoral chair of St. Maxi- 
 mian, in the sacristy of the Cathedral at Ravenna. Ivory carving 
 said to be of the Vlth century. Ravenna Cathedral! 
 
 Fig. 79. — BOCCALI from Italian paintings. 1. Fresco in the Badia, 
 Florence. 2. Fresco in San Miniato, Florence. 3. Fresco by Spinello 
 Aretino in the Campo Santo, Pisa. 4. Fresco by Benezzo Gozzoli, in 
 the Campo Santo, Pisa. 
 
85 
 
 Fig. 80. — VASES from Italian paintings. 1. Bartolo di Maestro Fredi, 
 Siena Gallery. 2. Ambrogio Lortnzetti, Siera Gallery. 3. Pietro 
 Lorenzetti, Lffizi at Florence. 4. School of Ambiogio Loienzetti ?, 
 Siena Gallery. 5. Bartolo di Maestro Fredi, Siena Gallery. 6. Duccio 
 di Buoninsegna, in the Opero del' Duonio, Siena. 
 
 Fig. 81. — Objects on a table in a fresco by a scholar of Giotto (?) in the 
 Abbey of Pomposa. 
 
86 
 
 Fig. 82. — From a painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Gallery at 
 Siena. 
 
 Fig. 83. — From a fresco of the marriage at Cana by Iiarna, at S. Gi- 
 mignano. Three of the jugs are in metal and three in faience. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
88 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 ftlNCE issuing the volume containing illustrations of the Oriental 
 wares there has come under the notice of the writer a few pieces 
 and fragments of Eastern derivation, some belonging to classes 
 whereof very little is known, and which therefore it may be useful 
 to place on record. One of these is fig. 84, a fragment of a large 
 bowl found on the island of Philae. There can here be no mistake 
 respecting the art, the peacocks with the crosses on their heads, 
 the passage of interlacing ornament, and the colonettes proclaim it 
 to be Egyptian of the Byzantine period. There are no traces of 
 glaze or colour visible on the surface, but it is possible that the 
 bowl was originally covered with a white slip and painted, after 
 the manner of the so-called Coptic pottery, and that the colour has 
 become obliterated from lying in earth, which has imbibed water 
 from the inundation of the Nile. Egypt was the land where the 
 graffito method was brought to the highest perfection in ancient 
 times, and where likewise the most distinctively Christian art took 
 its rise. It did not give its name to that art, none the less may it 
 on good grounds claim the honour of its invention. The so-called 
 Byzantine pottery is of all other perhaps the least known, but 
 within its limited representation there are few examples more 
 important than the present fragment. It was found, with other 
 pieces, by Mr. Newman, whose admirable paintings of Philae are 
 well known to lovers of water-colour art. The collection of these 
 remains by the distinguished painter has rendered a genuine service 
 to science. Had they not been secured, as it were in the nick of 
 time, we should possibly have lost the record of an interesting 
 phase of the art ; for it is scarcely likely the island and its monu- 
 ments will survive the submersion that will ensue on the completion 
 
APPENDIX. 89 
 
 of the dam now in course of erection at the cataract below the 
 island. 
 
 Fig. 85, from the collection of Dr. Fouquet, is another fragment 
 of a large bowl in graffito ornament, probably of Egyptian fabri- 
 cation, and dating from the Xllth or the beginning of the Xlllth 
 century. The passage of ornament above the horse's head is 
 similar in style to that on the Xlllth century Persian tiles ; the 
 nimbus behind the head of the horseman is also characteristic of 
 the figure representation on the same objects; the detail is, indeed, 
 common to the Oriental art of the period in all its forms. Ex- 
 amining the figure drawing and that of the horse, it recalls the 
 horseman shooting with a bow in an Egyptian MS. in the Vienna 
 Library, illustrated by the writer in the Godman Collection * ; and 
 likewise the horsemen in hunting and battle scenes depicted in 
 Persian illuminated MSS. The writer can, however, cite no other 
 instance of the same motive in Oriental graffito ware, nor, indeed, 
 any figure design of the time in like material and in the same 
 scheme of colour. One would naturally wish to know what was 
 the actual nature of the scene whereof our horseman formed a part, 
 and what was its general decorative arrangement ; yet if such 
 knowledge is denied us, at least the fragment proves that the 
 Egyptian potters of the Vlth or Vllth century of the Hegira 
 were capable of decorating their wares with figure compositions 
 artistically conceived and highly spirited in character. 
 
 The fragment represented in fig. 87 has the ground lowered in 
 the same way as in the preceding specimen ; it has, however, 
 judging from the style of design, every indication of belonging to 
 an earlier art. The fragment was found last year in the Eoman 
 Forum, and, so far as the writer knows, it is the only example of 
 the ware hitherto discovered in Italy. It is not absolutely new, 
 since the British Museum possesses a specimen found at Salonica 
 about ten years ago. One more fragment, although probably later 
 
 * Op. cit. p. 22, fig. 17. 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 in date, is also in the British Museum, this having been found in 
 excavating the Temple at Ephesus *. In the case of fragments so 
 small, and coming from places so distant from each other, it is 
 impossible, or at least it would be futile, to state at present 
 anything more definite than there is here an early ware of pro- 
 nounced and distinctive character which was in use in widely 
 separated countries bordering upon the Mediterranean. Fig. 86, 
 although boldly drawn, illustrates a simpler kind of graffito design. 
 The ground here is not cut away as in the preceding instances, but 
 a slightly increased force of presentations, as compared with the 
 incised line alone, is arrived at by covering the ornament with a 
 supplementary wash of thin slip. Further illustrations of this 
 very vigorous style of animal drawing are given in the Godman 
 Collection f. 
 
 The last example of the present graffito series represents a more 
 advanced stage of the art, see fig. 90. The ground is here cut 
 away in order to display the ornament in bold relief. Small 
 touches of the slip are, however, allowed to remain, the minute 
 specks of light giving life and sparkle to the ornament generally, 
 something after the manner in which the lustre filling-in is treated 
 in many of the Xlllth century Persian tiles ; the notion probably 
 being taken from that highly decorative form of ceramic art. It 
 is, perhaps, this ware that influenced the later XVth century 
 graffito pottery of the Italians. 
 
 It is at present uncertain to what extent the slip ornament was 
 practised in Italy ; the two examples here given from the Turin 
 excavations are unmistakably the output of Oriental potteries, 
 most likely Egyptian or Syrian — :see figs. 88, 89. Two boccali of 
 a precisely similar ware are in South Kensington Museum (403 
 and 404 — 1901), having been purchased from a dealer who had 
 brought them from Syria. The technique in all four is the same; 
 
 * Op. cit. Appendix, plate iii. figs. 5, 6. 
 t Op. cit. Appendix, plate xvi. 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 the vessels being thrown in a red clay and the ornament then 
 applied in a white slip; they were then dipped in transparent 
 glazes of yellow and green, the former rendering the red ground a 
 rich brown with an orange tint in it, the latter a slightly deeper 
 brown, but without the glow of the other. Students of Egyptian 
 ceramic art will remember that a covering glaze was applied in 
 the same way to the royal lapis-lazuli and turquoise colour graffito 
 ware of Amenhotep III.* In that case the graffito design was 
 filled in with a white slip, a method which was continued in Egypt 
 until certainly the IVth century A.D., as is shown in the Con- 
 stantine bowl at the British Museum |, only there it is the body 
 which is coloured, the glaze being transparent. A variation of the 
 technique of the Turin specimens is found in a small boccale 
 belonging to the writer, whereon the white body is covered 
 with a transparent glaze ; on this prepared ground the ornament 
 is painted in what may be a tin glaze. The result obtained is 
 similar to the sopra bianco of the early XVIth century Italian 
 Maiolica. Hence it may be inferred that the Italian sopra bianco 
 was copied from an Oriental ware which, were one inclined to be 
 curious, may be traced through Persia to China. 
 
 In an enquiry relating to the Oriental influence on Italian 
 ceramic art, a special interest will always be attached to the ware 
 to which belongs the bowl found by Mr. Fortnum at Pisa $. It 
 is for this reason the two fragments in figs. 91, 92 are given on 
 the present occasion. The ware itself must have been popular in 
 the East over a considerable space of time, since the ornament is 
 found gradually assuming a naturalistic development in its motives. 
 In this later manner it would be easy to cite numerous examples 
 from the Cairo mounds ; they would, indeed, furnish the subject 
 for a study of the evolution of ornament which would be at once 
 instructive and interesting. The example from Corbet Bey's 
 
 * See Henry Wallis : Egyptian Ceramic Art, 1900, plate iii. 
 
 t Op. cit. plate xii. 
 
 % See C. Dbury E. Fortnum : Archseologia, vol. xliii. 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 collection illustrating one of its phases must suffice on the present 
 occasion. The tirne-worn fragment of lustre ware, fig. 94, shows 
 an elegant and piquant arrangement of leaf ornament which, if not 
 in lustre, at least in some form or other will have been known to 
 the Italians. Its influence is seen in ornament like that in fig. 75, 
 although there the artist had not the deftness of touch nor the 
 command of sprightly and playful ordering of line which is so 
 effective in the Oriental design. The enrichment of the ground by 
 dots arranged in threes, as seen in the present example, is a detail 
 the Italians adopted from the Eastern wares. 
 
93 
 
 Fig. 84— FRAGMENT OF A VASE. Terra-cotta. Red body. 
 Ornament incised or perhaps stamped. A specimen of the ware is at 
 the British Museum. (From the island of Philae.) L. 20 cm. 
 
 Mr. Newman. 
 
 Fig 85.— FRAGMENT OF A BOWL. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. 
 Graffito ornament, yellow and rich brown. (From the Cairo Mounds.) 
 L. 23 cm. Dr, D. Fouquet. 
 
94 
 
 Fig. 86.— FRAGMENT OF A BOWL. Mezzo-maiolica. Red body. 
 Ornament in graffito, yellow, a lighter sort of extra slip on the animal. 
 (From the Cairo Mounds.) H. 16 cm. Henry Wallis. 
 
 Fig. 87.— FRAGMENT OF A BOWL. Mezza-maiolica. Red body. 
 Ornament in graffito, yellow. (Found in a Mediaeval well in the House 
 of the Vestals.) H. 7 cm. Forum Museum, Rome. 
 
95 
 
 Fig. 88. — BOCCALE (handle and mouth missing). Mezza-maiolica. 
 Red body. Ornament in slip, green on brown. (Found in excavations 
 at the Palazzo Madauia, Turin.) H. 16 cm. 
 
 Palazzo Madama. Turin. 
 
06 
 
 Fig. 89.— CUP WITH HANDLE. Mezza-maiolica. Ked body. Orna- 
 ment in slip, yellow on red. (Found with the preceding.) H. 6 cm. 
 
 Palazzo Madama, Turin. 
 
 Flo. 90.-PORTION OP A BASIN. Mezza-maiolica. Buff body. 
 Ornament in graffito, colour pale and rich brown. (From the Cairo 
 Mounds.) II. 13 cm. Henry Wallis. 
 
97 
 
 Fig. 91.— FRAGMENT (the bottom of a bowl). Mezza-maiolica. 
 White body. Ornament painted in manganese, covered with a blue 
 glaze. (From the Cairo Mounds.) H. 12 cm. Henry Wallis. 
 
 Mezza-maiolica. White 
 
 -piQr, 92. FRAGMENT (portion of a bowl). 
 
 body. Ornament painted in manganese, covered with a blue glaze. 
 (From the Cairo Mounds.) H. 8 cm. Henry WaHis. 
 
 I 
 
98 
 
 Fig. 93.— FRAGMENT (portion of a bosvl). Mezza-maiolica.. White 
 body. Ornament painted in manganese, covered with blue glaze. 
 (From the Cairo Mounds.) H. 14 cm. Eustace Corbet Bey. 
 
,•,'•',:..::' •.•: , 't»j»' 
 
 Fig. 94.— FRAGMENT (bottom of a bowl). Maiolica. Buff body. 
 Ornament painted in pale golden lustre. Tbe tin glaze has scaled. 
 (From tbe Cairo Mounds.) H. 13 cm. Henry Wallis. 
 
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