The Graybeards, or Longbeards, or Bellarmines, were made largely in the Low Countries for their own uses, and were exported to England. We give an illustration (Fig. 57) of one in Mr. Prime’s collection. There is also an excellent one, I believe, in possession of Dr. Breck, of Springfield, Massachusetts. These were intended for use, and usually carried from one quart to three gallons. They were always in brown—at least I have seen none in the gray; but their decoration was sometimes touched with the violet-color. They are a very handsome and decorative bottle. The name of “Bellarmine” was given them because, in the sixteenth century, when these bottles were made and used, the Cardinal Bellarmin was sent into the Low Countries to counteract the movements of the pernicious Reformers then so zealously at work there. He was cordially hated by the Protestants, and received from them his due share of contumely. Having a short stature and a large stomach, like the Longbeard bottles, and, as they said, holding like them much vinous or other liquor, they soon called the bottle a Bellarmine, which name it bears to this day—so that, indeed, it may be said, the bottle has immortalized the man.
These bottles were largely in use on the Continent and in England all through Shakespeare’s time, and one was dug up on the site of the “Boar’s Head at Eastcheap.” The “pottle-pot,” as the bottle was then called, held about two quarts. In one of the old English plays, Clodpate says: “Uds-buds, my head begins to turn round; but let’s into the house. ‘Tis dark, we’ll have one Bellarmine more, and then Bonus Nocius.”
Sometimes these Graybeards were handsomely mounted, and came to be ranked high among the household gods. An inventory of the Duke of Burgundy, made in 1467, speaks of one of them as being decorated with silver and gold: “Ung hault Goblet de Terre ouvré et chiqueté à ung visaige d’un heremite, garny au dessus et au dessoubs d’argent doré, et le couvercle aussi d’argent doré.”
Upon the Rhine these stone pots are still made for common uses, and largely; the same sort of clay is also extensively converted into seltzer-water bottles. Near Coblentz are several potteries devoted to this sort of work. At these places, since the great desire for interesting pottery has sprung up, some very fair copies of the old grès have been made. At first they were made with considerable care, and then had some value, showing us, as they did, what this very quaint and very original pottery was; and they were of value, as we could not have the originals. But now there is no restraint, and they are turned out by the ship-load in a slovenly style, and are to be seen in every shop-window. Fortunately, they do not pretend to be the real thing; and, fortunately, they will have but a short existence, as they do not grow out of any true want or true use.
Doulton Stone-ware.—On the other hand has sprung up at Lambeth, England, in the potteries of the Doultons, stone-ware which is true, original, artistic, and delightful. This is the same paste as the
grès; but, instead of imitating that, a scale and a variety of colors have been developed which the old grès could not at all touch. By means of thousands of experiments and much scientific knowledge, colors have been found which will bear the heat, and some of the results attained there of color alone are gratifying.
No pains or cost have been spared by the Messrs. Doulton to bring about the best work. Artists have been employed—indeed, have been created—to invent and to bring forth works novel in design and color; and they have done it. We cannot but welcome their work with open hands and open hearts; and we have reason to believe that the public has welcomed it with open purses. A very fine exhibition of this work was made at the United States Centennial Festival at Philadelphia, which attracted much and deserved praise. Among the artists early engaged were some ladies named Barlow, I think, who did excellent work. One of them etched in the wet clay groups of animals which were spirited and fascinating; the other, I believe, did flowers and plants. These ladies went to work, and thus solved the “woman question,” so far as it concerned themselves. Their work was much valued by collectors as far back as five or six years.
Besides this style, many decorated vases, bottles, jugs, cups, etc., etc., have been made, of which examples will be seen in our illustration (Fig. 58).
Not only have great variety and beauty of form been reached, but the methods of decoration are equally varied. One of the most elaborate is in the use of beads in lines or singly, so as to produce a jeweled effect, often very brilliant and very finished; this is in danger of being carried to excess.
So many pieces of their work have been brought to the United States, that those interested can see them for themselves, and will need no further description.
Early German Glazed Pottery.—Before leaving this subject a few words may be said upon the early German work in pottery.
We know but little of the history of the German or Teutonic tribes before the time of Cæsar; but it was found then that here existed strong, handsome, vigorous races, who had reached an unexpected degree of civilization. They had brilliant arms and armor; they respected woman, and honored old age. In the museums are found examples of the early German unglazed pottery, so much like that found in Egypt, in Gaul, in Peru, and in most other parts of the globe, examples of which are shown in our first chapter upon unglazed pottery. Just when they began to use the glaze for the finishing and protection of pottery, we do not know. But it is known that it was in use there some two hundred years before it had been applied in Italy in the 1400’s A. D. There are evidences sufficient to prove that the use of enamel, in which tin was an element, was known in Germany as early as the thirteenth century.
The most famous piece of this early glazed pottery is to be seen in the Church of the Cross, at Breslau, Prussian Silesia. It is a great monument of pottery, built in honor of the founder of the church, Henry IV. of Silesia. He lies at length, the size of life, wearing his armor and his crown, and with a sword in the right hand, a shield in the left. Around the sarcophagus upon which he lies are twenty-one figures in bass-relief, the whole executed in the style of the earliest German-Gothic. Upon the monument is an inscription, saying that Henry IV. died on the night of St. John, in 1290, etc., etc. This does not prove that the monument was executed then; but there are other proofs that it was made about that time, in the dress, etc., etc.
The name most conspicuous among the early potters of Germany is Hirschvogel, who worked at Nuremberg, and who, indeed, founded potteries there which continued through the century. He was born in 1441, and died in 1525. He appears to have been a painter upon glass, but from that went to the production of glazed pottery. Large plaques in bass-relief exist of this work, and also artistic earthen-ware stoves, some of which are elaborately and beautifully modeled. Examples of these, as well as pots, cruches, etc., etc., are to be seen in the museum at Nuremberg. The work of the German potters appears to have been finished with the glaze earlier than that of any others of Europe, except that of the Moors, in Spain.
The Arabs in Spain.—Cordova, Granada, Seville.—Enamel and Lustres.—Hispano-Moresque.—The Alhambra.—Tiles.—Vase of the Alhambra.—Malaga.—Majorca and Maiolica.—Rhodian Pottery.—Damascus Pottery.—Persian and Arabic Pottery.—Persian Porcelain.—Persian and Arabic Tiles.
BEFORE giving some particulars of the interesting examples of pottery which have come to us from the Arabs and the Moors of Spain, it may be well to devote a few moments to the people themselves.
I have thought it well to group under one head a number of their productions, because they are peculiar, and because they seem to have sprung from one centre, or to have grown up under a corresponding sense of the beautiful, so different from that of other peoples.
Beginning with the pottery of the Spanish Moors, now called Hispano-Moresque, and which is the latest, we run backward to the Rhodian, the Arabic, the Damascene, and the Persian. From what examples I have been able to see of these, they certainly show a strong family likeness in their colors, their designs, and their clays.
It is hardly to be supposed that this grew out of their religion, or that the fervid soul of Mohammed fired the souls of his followers with that striking and low-toned and intense and subtile harmony of blues, greens, and browns, which is so often seen on their tiles and dishes. It is more likely that, beginning somewhere, the Arabian potters carried with them wherever they went their colors and their secrets; and that what was desired in Persia, or Damascus, or Cairo, must be desired wherever the “followers of the faithful” were found; and thus they went to work to produce these various fictile wares which are now so much sought for.
One of the most curious, most interesting, and most picturesque episodes in modern history is that of the Moors in Spain.
From the year 712 to the time of the discovery of America, in 1492, these Moslems held possession of the finest parts of Spain, including the cities of Cordova, Granada, and Seville. Of these, Cordova and Seville are older than the Romans. In the first century they were fought over by Cæsar and Pompey, but were not destroyed. The shores of Spain were visited by the ships of Tyre, and afterward by the Greeks; but these came as traders, rather than as conquerors. The old inhabitants, the Iberians, were brave and determined; but they could not organize, could not resist the invading arms of Rome, which swept over the world under the leadership of some one able and daring leader. Then came in the Vandals and the Goths. They swarmed down upon Italy, and into Spain, where they became strong and great. As we read history, we see almost nothing but one long, fierce, destructive fight, and we wonder that there could have been any art, any learning, any kindness, in the world; for every man’s hand was against every man, and the chief vocation of great men was to rob and enslave other men. So it has been, so it is now; the forms change, the fact remains. We have our feudal barons to-day. But how came the Moors—the Arabs, rather—in Spain? Briefly this may be answered:
The amazing, almost miraculous power with which Mohammed the Promised had inspired the Arabian race led them forth to conquer and convert. They went east and they went west, until they stretched along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and reached the Pillars of Hercules.
Could the narrow strait stop their way? They passed over it like dry land, and spread their victorious bands over the southern part of the peninsula, and possessed themselves of the lovely lands of Andalusia, Estremadura, Castile, and even penetrated to the cold and savage mountains of Navarre.
What were these Moors? Were they savage beasts, cruel robbers?
They appear to have brought into Spain not only Art, but the arts, sciences, learning, literature. Under the strong and able rule of Abderrahman III. (912 to 961), agriculture, science, trade, and decent living, throve as they never yet had done in Spain. During the five or six centuries in which the Moors held the land, it is easy to believe that Spain enjoyed a greater measure of worldly prosperity than before or since. In this time Cordova, the seat of the caliphate, grew to have a population of a million souls; it had three hundred mosques and nine hundred baths. Its greatest mosque, begun in 786, shone with four thousand silver lamps, and its dome was raised aloft on twelve hundred slender pillars.
The city of Granada was built, and upon the sides of its mountain sprang into being the fairy fortress and palace of the Alhambra. Its halls, its courts, its galleries, its arabesques, its fretwork, its fountains, even in their ruin, tell us of the power of this singular people.
In Seville, too, the Alcazar and the Giralda even now bear beautiful witness to their art, their skill, their industry.
There seems little question now that the Moorish potters brought with them into Spain the arts which the Persian or Arabian potters knew, not only for the preparing the clays, but that they also had the secret for making the stanniferous enamel, or glaze, into which the use of tin enters. They also applied to the decoration of their wares certain lustres, which Demmin says were produced by the fumes of bismuth, of antimony, or of arsenic. It is not probable that gold was a component part of these lustres.
Just when the Moors went to work to make their tiles and their lustred dishes, we do not know. But as ornamental tiles—azulejos—were used to decorate their walls, we conclude that the production began almost at once. These tiles were not only used in bands or strips on the walls; they were also used as pavements, and the floors of the Alhambra were glittering with them, some few of which still remain there.
Mr. Ford’s description of them, thus quoted by Marryat, says: “Moorish very fine, and most ancient; surface plain, painted and enameled blue; the elaborate designs in gold lustre. The inscription on the shield is the well-known motto of the Mussulman founders of the palace of Granada: ‘There is no conqueror but God.’ The date of its manufacture may be placed about 1300.”
Our engraving of one of these tiles (Fig. 59) gives a good representation of the design, but it cannot, of course, express the color. No one can fail to see how far away it is from the commonplace and the ordinary geometric patterns into which the dull man invariably falls; no one can fail to be struck with the simple intricacy which interests, we cannot tell why.
Another remarkable piece of their work is The Vase of the Alhambra (Fig. 60), one of the most beautiful and most interesting vases anywhere known. This is sometimes called “La Jarra,” and is figured in Owen Jones’s “Alhambra,” where will be found much more that is worthy of attention. This is supposed to have been made about 1320. I take the description from Marryat’s work: “It is of earthen-ware; the ground white, the ornaments either blue of two shades, or of that gold or copper lustre so often found in Spanish and Italian pottery. This beautiful specimen of Moorish workmanship, which is four feet three inches in height, was discovered, with another similar to it, beneath the pavement of the Alhambra, and is said to have been filled with gold. It was copied in 1842, at the manufactory of Sèvres, from drawings made in Spain by Dauzats.” It has since been copied by Deck, of Paris.
Malaga was probably the place where the best of the Moorish work was made, and there the manufacture continued for centuries. At Valencia faiences were afterward largely produced, as they are still.
The examples of Moorish dishes remaining are marked by a peculiar lustre, which I have mentioned, which is either a lighter or a darker yellow, and sometimes of a deep coppery color.
A very fine example of this golden lustred ware is in the collection of Mr. Wales, at Boston, through whose kindness I am enabled to present the accompanying illustration (Fig. 61). It is now, I think, hung in the loan collection of the Museum of Arts at Boston, with many other of his valuable and interesting pieces.
That any pieces of this work should yet be in existence may excite our surprise.
The struggle between the Christians and the Moslems for the possession of the government and the religion of Spain went on through the centuries. Yet through all these troubled centuries these Moors found time to build great cities, and to create those beautiful examples of their peculiar architecture which are so satisfactory even in ruin. They also did more to encourage learning and the arts than any other nation of Europe; so that their schools and their scholars became renowned the world over, and were flocked to by Christian students.
In due time internal dissensions weakened them; then they went to ruin, and at last were driven out of Spain by the combined Christians. Then it was that the bitterness of war was intensified with the hatreds of religion; and then it was that a war of destruction was waged, not only against the persons of the “vile Moslems,” but against all their works; so that nothing should remain to tell the story of their hated supremacy and their hated religion. Then it was that the Moorish potters of Malaga and Valencia were slaughtered or expelled, and then, too, their handiwork went with them into wholesale destruction.
In this wreck and ruin, it is singular that the mosques, those finest monuments of the arts and the industry of the Moors, were spared.
These remain, and a few examples of their pottery, of which we have striven to give some idea, though faint.
One thing seems to be admitted on all hands, viz.: that to the Moors of Spain Europe owes either the invention or the introduction of siliceous or glass-glazed wares, and that from that date begins all improvements in fictile work; that directly from it came the potteries of the Balearic Islands, and that from Majorca came not only the names into Italy, but in all probability the potters or their secrets, which resulted in the production, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the wares now so famous under the name of Majolica, or, as it is now spelled, Maiolica, of which we shall have something to say further on.
Rhodian Pottery.—Pursuing this subject eastward, we find traces of a lustred pottery on the island of Sicily, believed to be the work of Arabic potters.
Still farther eastward, upon the island of Rhodes, have been found many plates and dishes, now classed as Rhodian, sometimes as Persian, and sometimes as Damascus ware. The styles of this work, their colors and their designs, seem to group them together, and it is difficult to separate them in any consistent way.
The first I saw of these were hung on the walls of the house of Mr. Frederick Leighton, the distinguished artist of London. While following his art on the island of Rhodes, he had heard that some pottery of this sort was now and then to be found on the island; the pieces he saw were very bold and striking, and tradition there said that they were the work of Persian potters, who, as prisoners, had centuries before been placed on the island. Finding clay to their hands, they went to work at their trade, and, with little doubt, practised it diligently through a long time, and handed it down to their children.
Whatever was the truth of the tradition, a search among the poor people of the island unearthed many pieces of the ware, which Mr. Leighton brought with him to London. This was repeated on a second visit, until now this private collection is probably one of the best in England.
Upon his second return, Mr. Leighton told me he found in London, for sale, plates and dishes of the same character and coloring which were said to have been brought around from Persia; so that, whatever may have been the origin of this ware, whether Rhodes, Persia, or Damascus, the product was almost the same.
Mr. Fortnum, in his “Hand-Book upon Maiolica,” says:
“The paste varies in quality more than in kind, being of a gray-white color and sandy consistence, analogous to that of the Persian wares. The decoration is more generally rich in color, the ground white, blue, turquoise, tobacco-color, and lilac, sometimes covered with scale-work, with panels of Oriental form or leafage, large sprays of flowers, particularly roses, tulips, hyacinths, carnations, etc., the colors used being a rich blue, turquoise, green, purple, yellow, red, black. The forms are elegant: large bowls on raised feet; flasks or bottles bulb-shaped with elongated necks; pear-shaped jugs with cylindrical necks and loop-handle; circular dishes or plates with deep centres, etc. An interesting example of the highest quality of this ware is in the writer’s possession, and is described and figured in color in vol. xlii. of the ‘Archæologia.’ It is a hanging-lamp made for and obtained from the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem, signed and dated June, 1549.
“Two leading varieties are known in collections: namely, Damascus proper; known by its evenness of surface and rich glaze with subdued but harmonious coloring, certain tones of which are peculiar to this variety; for example, a dull lilac or purple, replacing the embossed red so conspicuous on the Rhodian, and used against blue, which is of two or three shades, the turquoise being frequently placed against the darker tone; a sage green is also characteristic. The dishes of this variety usually have the outer edge shaped in alternating ogee.
“This kind is much more uncommon than the other, Rhodian or Lindus, to which the greater number of pieces known in collections as ‘Persian ware’ belong. It is to Mr. Salzmann that we owe the discovery of the remains of ancient furnaces at Lindus, in the island of Rhodes, from the old palaces of which he collected numerous examples. This variety, although extremely beautiful, is generally coarser than the former, and the decoration more marked and brilliant. A bright-red pigment, so thickly laid on as to stand out in relief upon the surface of the piece, is very characteristic and in many cases is a color of great beauty; the predominant decoration of the plates consists of two or three sprays of roses, pinks, hyacinths, and tulips, and leaves, sometimes tied together at the stem and spreading over the entire surface of the piece in graceful lines; the border frequently of black and blue scroll-work. Ships, birds, and animals, are also depicted; and a shield-of-arms occurs on some pieces.”
A few of these striking Rhodian plates are to be seen in America; and I here engrave one (Fig. 62) from Mr. W. C. Prime’s collection, which is an excellent example. It shows a group of flowers starting from a point, the central stalk being that of a purple hyacinth. This method of grouping was a favorite one with these painters. These plates vary in price in Europe from fifteen to seventy-five dollars each.
Of the Damascus pottery little can be said, because little is known. From time to time plates and dishes are purchased there and brought to us, which possess the general character already described as Rhodian, but are thought to have a delicacy and fineness not found in that pottery. A very handsome example is in Mr. Wales’s collection, which bears a little gilding, and which, perhaps, may be classed as of Damascus.
Of Persian and Arabic pottery it is impossible, in the vagueness existing with respect to it, to do more than make a few suggestions.
We cannot do better than to read what Mr. Fortnum has gathered with regard to this ware:
“We do not derive any information from M. de Rochchouart on the subject of the lustred wares, except in his description of the tiles of the Mosque of Natinz of the twelfth century; nor do we learn anything of that variety of creamy white pottery having the sides pierced through the paste, but filled with the translucent glaze, and which is believed to be the Gombrōn ware of Horace Walpole’s day. But he gives interesting information on the subject of the tiles used for decoration, of which the finest are those mentioned above; those of Ispahan and of the period of Shah Abbas being also admirable for their exquisite design.
“The Persian glazed pottery known to us may be divided into:
“A. Wares, generally highly baked, and sometimes semi-translucent. Paste, fine and rather thin, decorated with ruby, brown, and coppery lustre, on dark-blue and creamy-white ground.
“B. Wares, of fine paste, highly baked, semi-translucent, of creamy color and rich, clear glaze, running into tears beneath the piece of a pale sea-green tint. Its characteristic decoration consisting of holes pierced through the paste, and filled in with the transparent glaze: the raised centres, etc., are bordered with a chocolate brown or blue leafage, slightly used. This is supposed to be the Gombrōn ware.
“C. Wares, frequently of fine paste, and highly baked to semi-transparency: the ground white; decoration of plants and animals, sometimes after the Chinese, in bright cobalt blue, the outlines frequently drawn in manganese; some pieces with reliefs and imitation Chinese marks also occur; this variety is perhaps more recent than the others.”
This description may apply rather to a sort of semi or imperfect porcelain of Persian manufacture, as to the reality of which there has been and is much doubt, rather than to the peculiar class of faience of which we have been writing.
As to the porcelain or hard faience of Persia, here and there are to be met with singular examples, which, because of a peculiar style of painting, combined with a certain coarseness or imperfectness of paste, have usually been relegated to the less dexterous potters of Persia. That pottery has been made in Persia, far back in the dimness of the Dark Ages, there seems to be no doubt; just what it was remains a doubt; because even then a sort of commerce, probably by sea and land, existed with China, and thence came porcelains of various qualities and many designs. We are apt to believe that, until our day, there were few “cakes and ale”—little art, or only coarse fabrics. Whereas fine and admirable work of many sorts, and especially in porcelain and pottery, had reached perfection before our European or Western civilization began. Out of China came porcelain to Persia; out of Persia and Phœnicia came pottery to us.
Of the Persian porcelain, or hard pottery, a single example is to be seen in Mr. Avery’s collection, now in the Museum of Art at New York. It was bought at the Vienna Exhibition from Prince Ehtezad-es-Saltenet, uncle to the Shah of Persia, and we may suppose it, therefore, to have about it the true flavor of genuineness. It is a bowl of rather coarse ware, approaching to the hardness, if not the translucency, of porcelain; it is painted with blue of a common color, and with a not very interesting design; and is valuable as an example of the probable work of Persian potters.
But there exist many pieces of pottery besides these, which have usually been called Persian because of their peculiarities of design and of coloring. Some of these approach closely to the work already designated as Rhodian or Damascene. In the upper plate of Fig. 62, from Mr. Prime’s collection, is shown one of these, which the owner is inclined to believe may be Persian and not Rhodian. So also the painted faience egg (Fig. 62), obtained by him from a lamp in a mosque of the Holy Land. The face and the coloring do certainly impress one with a Persian faith, though it may not be easy to explain the reason why.
In my possession is a sweetmeat-pot covered with an “engobe” or “slip,” upon which are boldly painted in colors flowers and leaves; these last are peculiar in shape, and are by some believed to be Persian work—I doubt it, but it is possible.
We have a few words to say of the Persian or Arabic Tiles. These have been found inlaid upon the walls of mosques and palaces and tombs in Damascus, in Cairo, in Ispahan. As far back as the palmy days of Babylon and Assyria, these enameled or glazed bricks or tiles were used to decorate the walls of their buildings; and that is about all we know. These bricks remain; for, of all the works of man, the brick is seemingly imperishable.
It is also certain that upon some of these bricks or tiles is found a glaze or enamel made with the use of tin; so that what is now called stanniferous enamel was known at that early day, and long before it was used in Italy by Luca della Robbia, who at one time was supposed to have invented it.
The example here given (Fig. 63) is a very beautiful plaque, made up of many pieces, and is remarkable for the splendor of its color, rather than for any perfectness of design. It is interesting, however, as showing the dresses of the cavaliers of the Persian court.
In the walls of Damascus, of Jerusalem, and of Cairo, these tiles were imbedded for ornamental and decorative purposes, and from them they have been gathered by those good people called “collectors.” In Fig. 62 is an engraving of one in Mr. Prime’s collection, which gives simply the lines, but wholly fails to give the magic and mystery of color which endues it with beauty. This cannot be described, nor can it be pictured; the combinations of blues are too subtile for the palette of the painter; they have been sublimated in the fiery heats of the furnace.
A few of these tiles are in possession of Mr. Prime and of Mr. Wales; and a very fine collection is now in the house of Mr. Leighton, of London, of which I have spoken. He has had them imbedded in the walls of his halls, which they tinge with their peculiar and pensive light.
The Word Maiolica, or Majolica.—Italian Renaissance.—The Dark Ages.—The Crusades.—The Mezza-Maiolica.—The True Maiolica.—Luca della Robbia.—Urbino.—Xanto and Fontana.—Raffaelesque Ware.—Mr. Fortnum.—Prices to-day.—Gubbio.—Maestro Giorgio.—The Lustres.—Castel-Durante.—Faenza.—The Sgraffito.—Forli, Venice, Castelli, etc.—Castellani.—Maiolicas at the Centennial.
THE term Maiolica, or Majolica, as has been often explained, came from the island of Majorca, whence came to Italy, in the twelfth century, some of those peculiar potteries already described under the name of Hispano-Moresque.
The Balearic Islands, lying in such convenient proximity to the mainland, were then possessed by the active and enterprising Moors—that most daring and doing race, who had planted the standard of the Prophet in Southern Europe. From these convenient islands they could organize pleasant surprises upon the coasts of Italy, and gratify themselves with much plunder. While human nature can bear and does bear much marauding, there comes a time when endurance ceases to be a virtue, and then—war ensues. Such a time had come in the twelfth century, when the Pisans, and their friends along the Italian coasts, determined to plunder, rather than be plundered; and then they pounced upon the hated Moors of the islands, and turned the tables upon them. It is believed that, among the spoils carried away to Italy, were many pieces of the peculiar wares made by the Moors in these islands as well as in Spain. That these examples, and some of the potters themselves, were carried away to the Italian coast, is most likely; and that the Italians, always a people with quick sensibilities, and a ready perception of the beautiful, if not of the good or the true, at once saw that here was a manufacture ready to their hands, which combined use and beauty, as their own did not. At any rate, it was during the most vivid period of the Italian Renaissance (1350 to 1600) that the production of the highly-decorated fictile work, known as Maiolica, sprang up, culminated, and went to decay.
Through the centuries called the Dark Ages, art and literature had not died; their fires were kept bright in the monkish cell, where some Alcuin, in England or in France, traced with painful pen the lives of the saints, or the romaunts of the Lady; and touched their illuminated margins with those exquisite colors which feed the eye with a pleasant surprise now, when centuries have passed, and books lie about our feet as thick as leaves in Vallambrosa’s vales. During this dark time art and literature flourished among the Saracens along the African coast, and grew into splendor in the halls of Cordova and Seville.
But a day was at hand when Peter the Hermit made his pilgrimage to the “Holy City” (1093), and came back to preach his fiery crusades against the abominations with which the Moslems defiled the sepulchre of the Lord. Then through some two centuries Europe was converted into religious camps, from which streamed out toward Jerusalem the armies of the Cross—the Crusaders—and that Oriental world was thus mingled in a great warlike confusion with the Occidental world of Europe.
How does all this touch upon the small matter of Italian maiolicas, of which I treat? Thus: these religious wars made Venice, Leghorn, and Genoa, into great centres of commercial activity, and into them flowed wealth, as well as every kind of merchandise and manufacture known in the East. The people of these small kingdoms grew rich, and vastly so. The Dandolos, the Dorias, the Medicis, founded princely families, and became patrons of learning and art. Then, too, the Church grew great, all-powerful, and rich; for the fervor of piety, which fired all hearts, sought expression not only in shedding its blood to rescue the holy places, it poured in of its earnings or plunderings rivers of wealth to enrich the coffers of the Church. The popes, the cardinals, the bishops, grew great, not so much in religious truth, but more in lands, in castles, in gold, and in goods. Thus every prelate and every patriarch became a prince, with gold to give, and favors to bestow. Then they became, all through Italy, patrons of art and fosterers of learning.
We see in this the spring out of which flowed the “Renaissance” of literature and the arts, and which resulted in the architecture, the painting, the poetry, the maiolicas, and the luxury, of that new Italian life.
The term maiolica, in its generic sense, means what delft does in Holland, faience in France, and earthen-ware in England. All are soft pottery, covered with an opaque glaze called enamel. The term was once applied only to the lustred wares of Spain and Italy; but now it has come to mean such dishes—ewers, vases, etc., etc.—as were made in Italy during the period of the Renaissance, which have an expression of art, and can be termed decorative; perhaps it goes still further, for the druggists’ pots (Fig. 64), then much in use, and which may perhaps be classed wholly with the useful, are not excluded; for upon some of these much decoration was put. The word also carries a subdivision called mezza-maiolica.
Mezza-Maiolica.—We cannot attempt to give a history of all the potteries which sprang into being in Italy during this time; it would be both difficult and useless. Of course, we know that many existed, and must have existed even from the days of the Roman dominion. But, under the influences mentioned, they took on a new life. Not only had striking examples come to the Italians from the Moors of Majorca, but beyond question many others had reached them from time to time from the East. Common and unglazed potteries gave place to the better sorts; and a vast stride was taken when the vessel came to be protected by a glaze made with the use first of lead (plumbiferous), and then of tin (stanniferous).
The Italian writers assert that the use of lead—the plumbiferous glaze—was applied in Urbino as early as 1300. Why need we doubt it? At Pesaro it reached its perfection about 1540. The common earthen or red ware of the country was dipped into a slip or “engobe” of white clay; then it was dried or baked; then painted, and afterward covered with a thin skin of lead-glaze, which was fixed with the fire.
The colors used in decorating these pieces were few, being mostly yellows, greens, blues, and black. This lead-glaze was soft, but it had a sort of metallic, iridescent lustre, which is one of its peculiarities and beauties. It is almost useless to attempt with the engraving to express fully the characteristics of this ware; the colors we cannot give. One piece (Fig. 65) will serve to show the kind of design often used, which bears unquestioned testimony to its Moorish parentage.
This finer work seems to have been made about 1500 to 1550, and at Pesaro.
The True Maiolica is that which is covered with a glaze made with the oxide of tin and siliceous sand. This stanniferous glaze or enamel takes the place of the “slip” or “engobe,” and covers the potter’s clay with a clear white enamel, upon which the colors can be laid.
The avidity with which the new art was seized upon in Italy by dukes and priests, by workmen and artists, we can hardly comprehend. It would seem that the whole Italian world then rushed into every form of art and literature with an eagerness only to be explained by a desire to make good the Lost Ages—often called the “Dark Ages.”
Furnaces and potters sprang out of the ground, and almost every good town sooner or later had its “botega.” Of these we may mention as among the most noted: Urbino, Gubbio, Pesaro, Castel-Durante, Faenza, Forli, Caffagiolo, Siena, Deruta, Venice, Castelli, besides many others.
Before giving some particulars of these manufactures, it may be well to refer to a name which seems to take precedence of others among the artists in ceramic work in Italy. This man was Luca della Robbia, born in the year 1400. M. Ritter says of him: “He was a sculptor first, and a potter afterward. An artist of the highest power, he was inspired with all the marvelous æsthetic force and subtilty and fertility of his age and of his country. He was not satisfied, as other sculptors are, with form-beauty alone, but cast about to add to his moulded figures the further beauties of coloring and surface-texture. He no doubt well knew the wares of the Moors of Spain, and probably was acquainted with the secret of the tin-glaze already used by the Italian potters. It is needless to assume, as most writers do, that he discovered tin-glazes for himself; but he at any rate adopted the process, and he has left us bass-reliefs and even life-sized statues covered with a fine stanniferous polychrome-glaze, which are among the wonders of Italian Renaissance art, and which to this day are, in their way, unsurpassed triumphs of skill.”
The portrait (Fig. 66) which we give shows him to be among the strong and able men, who might not only stand before kings, but might be a king himself.
There are but few pieces of his work in this country—so far as I know, only these: one a Virgin and Child, in possession of Mr. Prime, of New York; the other now in the loan collection of the Art-Museum at New York, the property of Mrs. Robert M. Grinnell. It is thus described: “The child Jesus lies on a mass of green grass. White lilies with yellow stamens spring up behind him. The Virgin kneels; above her two winged cherub heads, and two arms stretched down hold a crown over her head. On the crown, yellow and blue spots.” From the description, the reader will not be likely to rank this among works of the finest art. These works were produced to meet the religious wants of the time and people, and were in great demand. But to-day, for other than religious reasons, they sell for twenty times the prices they then did.
In Fig. 67 is to be seen a retable, now in the Museum of the Louvre, which is probably among the best examples of his style of work. These bass-reliefs were at first done with white figures on a blue ground; subsequently other colors were introduced, such as greens, browns, and yellows. His four sons and a nephew carried on the same styles of work, but failed to improve upon their master.
From the two or three pieces of the work which I have seen, I could value them as examples in the history of ceramics; as works of art, for myself not at all.
Italian writers naturally wish to claim for Luca della Robbia all possible merit, and particularly that he discovered and first applied in Europe (outside of Spain) the enamel made from tin; thus raising him to a high rank as a discoverer and originator, as well as an artist. Much discussion and speculation has been indulged in, which is, however, of but little interest to us, and probably less to Della Robbia himself. What he did do, and for which he deserved praise, was, that he seems to have worked at the new business he had taken up with honesty and persistency; that he was patient and painstaking. These are always good. He was merchant enough to make what then would sell; that is, works for the ornamentation of churches and altars, one of which we have illustrated.
He was successful, and that was a satisfaction to him as it is to us.
He made, besides altar-pieces, rondels and squares to be set into walls, upon which were masks, scrolls, fruit, flowers, buds, etc., etc.; and these were sometimes white, and sometimes enameled with various colors.
His nephew Andrea followed his lead, but did not improve upon his master; and his four sons, Giovanni, Luca, Ambrosio, and Girolamo, continued to make the same description of reliefs, but greatly inferior to those of the first Della Robbia.