majolica

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Figure 124: Death of the Virgin, maiolica plaque painted in the istoriato style by an unknown Italian artist often referred to as the Master of the Death of the Virgin, Faenza, Italy, c. 1510. The c

majolica plate depicting the birth of Venus

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majolica

pottery

Also known as: Raffaelle ware, maiolica

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Article History

Also spelled:: maiolica

Related Topics:: Urbino majolica; albarello; Castelli ware; cuenca technique; Castel Durante ware

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majolica, tin-glazed earthenware produced from the 15th century at such Italian centres as Faenza, Deruta, Urbino, Orvieto, Gubbio, Florence, and Savona. Tin-glazed earthenware—also made in other countries, where it is called faience or delft—was introduced into Italy from Moorish Spain by way of the island of Majorca, or Maiolica, whence it derived the name by which it was known in Italy.

The majolica painter’s palette was usually restricted to five colours: cobalt blue, antimony yellow, iron red, copper green, and manganese purple; the purple and blue were used, at various periods, mainly for outline. A white tin enamel was used also for highlights or alone on the white tin glaze in what was called bianco sopra bianco, “white on white.”

The shapes most often employed were the albarello, or drug jar, of Middle East origin; a type of ewer evidently derived from the Greek oinochoe; and, above all, the piatta da pompa, or show dish, in the istoriato, an Italian narrative style from the early 16th century that uses the pottery body solely as support for a purely pictorial effect. Although violating aesthetic rules in their subordination of shape to decoration, such wares remain works of great skill, as well as beauty.

Milan faience

majolica