A history and description of Italian majolica

Preface

I consider myself fortunate in being able to include in this series of histories of the great schools of pottery a volume on Italian Majolica from the pen of my distinguished friend M. L. Solon. The subject is worthy of the noblest treatment, for, in its sphere, the decorated pottery of the Italian Renaissance is as supreme as the contemporary architecture, painting, and sculpture; and no one who has any pretensions to a knowledge of pottery can fail to realise the eminent qualifications Mr. Solon possesses for such a task.

Foreign critics have sometimes, perhaps unkindly, said that “ England is the grave of all the arts.” Certainly we have been great as collectors of the work of bygone centuries, and as each art or craft, travelling westward, has reached its bourn on the fringe of the Atlantic, we have striven as craftsmen and as artists to learn from the work of our predecessors. England has long been rich in its treasures of Italian pottery, held both by private collectors and by the State, and if we cannot point to any distinctive pottery of our own which has been born out of the ashes of Italian Majolica, as the old painted faience of France was, at least English collectors and connoisseurs have contributed their fair share to the considerable literature that lias been written about these glorious works of the past. Too much credit can hardly be given to the authorities of the South Kensington Museum for their enterprise in providing excellent yet inexpensive handbooks on many branches of art-workmanship , and among the numerous volumes issued by the Museum, that on “ Italian Majolica,” by the late Mr. Drury E. Fortnum, is worthy of all praise

as the first really competent account of the subject, in any

vii vm

PREFACE language, which was at the same time within the reach of the poorest student. Mr. Drury Fortnum followed up this little handbook by larger and more sumptuously illustrated volumes, culminating in his great work on “Majolica” published in 1896. Since that time Mr. Henry Wallis, unrivalled in his artistic interpretation of ancient pottery, has issued a number of valuable and suggestive monographs on various phases of the art of the mediaeval Italian potter. While these works have made their appearance in this country, and our national collections have slowly grown richer, scholars have been busy, in Italy, France, and Germany extending our knowledge of the origin and development of the painted pottery of the Italian Eenaissance. Some have been content to rearrange previously-garnered knowledge in the light of modern scholarship and research. Others have ransacked the archives of old Italian towns and states, or the records of the princely families of that country, for any documents that might throw light on old-time things and men : in this connection the work of Mr. Langton Douglas, in deciphering and arranging the archives of Siena, is worthy of special mention, as it is the fruit of English scholarship. Finally, the spade of the excavator has been turned to account in this field almost as fruitfully as in the domain of classical archaeology, and the collections of fragments disinterred from the site of the old potteries of the peninsula have brought both enlightenment and confusion in their train, because their worth has been too often misinterpreted and their exact significance misunderstood.

Unfortunately, the majority of the workers in this wide field seem to have been infected with a little of that patriotic fever that claims every Italian writer for its own. Let a writer, however judicial he may be in other matters, commence to write of Faenza, Diruta, or Siena, and he immediately loses all perspective, and we find him no longer content to tell us what was done at one of these places, but before long he is off at a canter trying to persuade us that his particular centre was the very fans et origo of all Italian Majolica.

PREFACE

IX

To weigh calmly and appraise fairly all these varied contributions to our knowledge is not every man’s task — to begin with, it demands skill in the tongues of men possessed by few — but Mr. Solon brings to its essay the ripe experience of a life, already longer than the psalmist’s span, spent in the study of the history of pottery in its larger aspects, and, above all, that intimate knowledge of technique gained by half a century’s work as a ceramic artist, executing with his own hand the visions of his fancy. What power of divination is bestowed by this patient yet inspired toil in clay only another craftsman can appreciate in full, but those who are no craftsmen may certainly realise. At all events, the reader of Mr. Solon’s pages may be assured that they present a new account of the origin of the painted and lustred tin-enamelled wares of Italy, drawn from all the latest sources of information by an unrivalled hand.

William Burton.

October, 1907.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction I

I. The Marches : Faenza, Forli, Rimini, Ravenna,