Maiolica

Over the course of 40 years, Vincenzo Funghini (1828-1896) accumulated a wide range of maiolica objects that are now treasured in many private and public collections. Born in Castiglion Fiorentino, in Arezzo's district, Tuscany, Funghini was an engineer, architect and archaeologist that became one of the most important nineteenth-century collectors and antiquarians of Italian maiolica. During his lifetime, he published texts related to his collections including a booklet accompanying the national industrial exhibition in Milan of 1881, where he showcased 72 items from over 4000 examples of his prehistoric weapons. On the subject of Italian ceramics, he wrote about the Medici porcelain to provide a context for two treasured pieces from his collection. In response to publications by Federigo Argnani, Funghini published also on the maiolica production in Cafaggiolo, Mugello and Faenza, at that time thought to be the most significant ceramic centres in Italy of around 1500. To this list of writings, it is important to add the twenty-five diaries preserved in the State Archives in Arezzo. In large part unpublished, the volumes provide invaluable information for the analysis of the life of the collector. In this article I will briefly reconstruct Funghini's approach to his collection, as seen through the lens of his personal accounts. Subsequently, I will focus on his contacts with international collectors. These diaries inform our understanding of the appreciation for Italian Renaissance maiolica across Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century.

In occasione dei suoi 130 anni di storia, «La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno» ha dedicato una serie di inserti speciali: uno per ogni provincia pugliese. Nell'inserto sulla provincia di Taranto è stato ospitato questo contributo sintetico sulle varie manifatture ceramiche - e di maiolica in particolare - concentrate nei tre centri produttivi: Laterza, Grottaglie e Manduria, che vengono esaminati.

“The cultural context of maiolica in Renaissance Italy.” In Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Eds. Timothy Wilson and Alan Darr. Special monographic issue of the Detroit Institute of Arts Bulletin 87 nos 1-4 (2013): 14-19.

Questo contributo prende in esame: 
1. la raccolta di manufatti in maiolica conservati nella chiesa di San Benedetto;
2. i reperti di maiolica rinvenuti in vari saggi archeologici eseguiti nel complesso
monastico nel corso degli anni;
3. la maiolica architettonica (pavimenti e cupole maiolicate) del complesso monumentale.

Este trabajo pretende ahondar en la relación existente entre la procedencia de los materiales y las tipologías cerámicas prestablecidas que  proponen lugares de manufactura relacionados con ciertos tipos cerámicos, a partir de la aplicación de Análisis por Activación Neutrónica identificaremos diferencias a nivel composicional (químico)  que permitan la diferenciación entre la cerámica mayólica producida en Puebla y la manufacturada en Ciudad de México. Así mismo comparar las características de nuestras muestras con las ordenanzas de loceros para identificar la consistencia (o no) de éstas .

In the sixteenth century, tin-glazed earthenware dishes known as maiolica became an interactive means of entertaining viewers in the context of dining through the combination of painted imagery and inscriptions. Beginning around 1530, painters of a type of narrative-painted maiolica, known as ‘istoriato,’ began to include lengthy inscriptions on the reverses of dishes that often identified subjects and included excerpts of poetry. These inscriptions demonstrate three important features: first, dishes must have been handled by viewers in order to read the inscriptions, either while on display or during a meal; second, the more complex inscriptions were intended to encourage greater engagement between the viewer and ceramic dish and generate increased interaction and conviviality among guests, and third, maiolica painters were attempting to raise their standing in court circles by demonstrating their literary knowledge through the addition of these inscriptions. These inscriptions are discussed in the context of Renaissance banquets where discussions of literary subjects took place.

Ester Mantovani replicates Isabella d'Este maiolica istoriata by Nicola d'Urbino to investigate the art and design of Italian Renaissance ceramics at the Gonzaga court of Mantua. Link to film: http://youtu.be/H0BDdzJ3_nQ

This film is  part of our larger project of the same name described below (please see pdf).

An online component of The Illustrated Credenza project is in development with "IDEA" (The Isabella d'Este Archive) 
http://isabelladeste.ucsc.edu/?page_id=566

Vengono esaminate le produzioni di raffinate maioliche in Puglia e le testimonianze pavimentali sia pugliesi, sia dell'area napoletana ancora oggi attestate nella regione ed ascrivibili al secolo (metà XVIII-metà XIX)  della dominazione dei Borbone sul regno di Napoli dapprima, e poi delle Due Sicilie, dopo la restaurazione seguita al decennio francese. Si citano pavimenti con decori ripetitivi "a cellula singola", più caratterizzanti le produzioni locali (Laterza, Grottaglie, ...), e quelli con grandi scene decorative barocche a pieno campo dovuti ad artefici per lo più napoletani (Giustiniani, Chiaiese, Barberio, ..). Si citano, inoltre, i principali centri di produzione ceramica nelle tre provincie pugliesi: la Capitanata, la Terra di Bari e la Terra d'Otranto. Infine un cenno è fatto ai grandi vasi biansati a cratere ed ai mezzibusti -invetriati in verde scuro o in giallo lionato o acromi - usati entrambi come elementi architettonici decorativi sulle facciate di palazzi, ville e pilastri di cancelli.

Il catalogo raccoglie le schede delle opere d’arte decorativa esposte da Maria Accascina alla Mostra d’Arte Sacra delle Madonie allestita nel 1937 presso il Convento dei PP. Riformati di Petralia Sottana, centro delle alte Madonie. Si tratta di gioielli, suppellettili liturgiche, oggetti preziosi di uso profano, coralli, paramenti sacri, tessuti, statue lignee, intagli, maioliche e tappeti realizzati dal XI al XIX secolo. Le opere, alcune delle quali perdute, provengono dalle collezioni nobiliari, dall’allora Museo Nazionale di Palermo, ora Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palazzo Abatellis, dal Real Istituto d’Arte della stessa città e soprattutto dalle chiese dei centri delle Madonie, nello specifico Castelbuono, Collesano, Isnello, Gangi, Geraci Siculo, Petralia Soprana, Petralia Sottana e Polizzi Generosa. Le schede, con aggiornamento bibliografico, sono disposte per paese e per tipologia di materiali impiegati secondo un criterio cronologico.

Although a small medieval town, Castelli d’ Abruzzo was one of the most important maiolica centers in Italy, especially during the 16th to 18th centuries.  At the end of the 16th century, two “compendiario”  styles in maiolica decoration emerged in Castelli: one, whose wares are called le turchirze (the turquoise ones), the other whose wares are called I bianchi (the white ones) characterized by scenes painted in only a few brush strokes on a plain white ground. Τhe castellana “compendiario” styles dominated the period between the late sixteenth and seventeenth century.  The bianchi had a polychrome painted decoration, mainly in yellow, orange, green and blue. The central decoration was usually framed by stylized garlands. During this period, the ceramics of Castelli began to be widely exported outside of the Italian peninsula as luxury items. This paper aims to record the diffusion of Castelli's maiolica in Greece, when it still was under Ottoman control and to enhance our understanding of cultural influences between the Adriatic's western (Italian) coast and the Ottoman Greece in the early centuries of the Modern Age.

During the world’s first archaeological excavation of a deep-sea shipwreck exclusively using robotic technology, conducted in 1990- 91 off the Tortugas Islands in the Straits of Florida, USA, Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology of Tampa, Florida, recovered 278 sherds from a crude form of cooking ware. Identified as colonoware, this non-Spanish ceramic tradition contrasts starkly with the Seville- dominated tin-glazed tablewares used by the ship’s crew and passengers. Research suggests that these wares are indigenous vessels produced by enslaved Africans in the circum-Caribbean region.

In 1622 when the Tortugas ship, interpreted as the Portuguese-built and Spanish-operated 117-ton Buen Jesús y Nuestra Señora del Rosario, sank in 400m of water, Indian Native American labor had largely been replaced by an enslaved African workforce on the Spanish possessions of the Americas from sugar plantations to mines and households. The dominance of colonoware on the Buen Jesús, combined with this pottery’s co-existence on the Atocha from the same Seville-bound Tierra Firme fleet, suggests an exploitation of African slaves for food preparation and cooking. The Tortugas shipwreck seems to hold the first recorded archaeological evidence for maritime slavery in Spain’s renowned Americas fleets.

The excavation of the 400m-deep Tortugas shipwreck in the Straits of Florida, USA, resulted in the recovery 2,031 rims, handles, bases and sherds from 21 principal types of tablewares. The collection is dominated by 1,477 tin-glazed sherds representing eight individual types almost completely produced in Seville, followed by 336 lead-glazed wares and 218 unglazed coarseware sherds.
This report quantifies the assemblage and presents a site-specific typology and catalogue of the diagnostic wares. The historical context of the Tortugas wreck’s tablewares within Seville’s pottery industry is summarized, recognizing and characterizing the importance of the Triana district on the west bank of the Guadalquivir River.

Compared to English, Dutch and other European shipwrecks of the 16th and 17th centuries, home-produced ceramics dominate the assemblage from the Tortugas ship, which is identified as the 117-ton Spanish-operated Buen Jesús y Nuestra Señora del Rosario. This trend is embedded within the economic monopoly that Seville and the Casa de Contratacíon exerted over the Americas trade. The Tortugas collection is compared to ceramics associated with Iberian and other European shipwrecks to assess whether this cultural convention was normal or atypical.

The assemblage is extremely similar to the Atocha’s ceramic record despite the fact that this ship from the same 1622 Tierra Firme fleet was far larger and of superior status to the Buen Jesús. The Tortugas ceramic tablewares are a revealing index of unchanged cultural tastes and continued production within Seville’s pottery industry despite the contraction of the Spanish economy at the end of the country’s Golden Age.

The Adriatic Sea has been for centuries a crossroads where ethnically, culturally and religiously diff erent communities have
found an opportunity to meet, creating a dense set of relationships and cultural connections.
The study of the evolution of dietary practices and convivial habits is an interesting observatory to deepen the knowledge
on the interactions between these communities over the time. In this perspective the role of ceramics, as material well directly
related to the consumption of food, acquires great signifi cance beyond the mere value of commercial traffi c indicator.
Specifi cally the function of maiolica, pottery mainly linked to the tables, lends itself to shed light on the dietary practices and
convivial table habits, where the socio-cultural identities are subject to numerous forms of contamination. The study of the diff usion
of Italian maiolica on the east Adriatic coast is therefore a way to enhance our understanding of cultural infl uences between
East and West in the early centuries of the Modern Age.
This paper analyzes the phenomenon of the spread of Italian maiolica and in particular of that produced in Castelli (Teramo,
Abruzzo) in the Eastern Adriatic in the Early Modern Age (c. 1550—1700). The recent interest of scholars on the circulation of
post-medieval ceramics in the Eastern Mediterranean has highlighted new archaeological contexts that also returned maiolica
from Castelli. The analysis of the state of knowledge fi rstly allows us to outline the contours of the phenomenon and then draw
future research developments.

In de periode van 27 mei tot en met 5 juli 2013 en 28 oktober tot en met 18 december is door ADC ArcheoProjecten op de locatie ‘Delftse Schie’ te Schiedam archeologisch onderzoek verricht, in de vorm van een opgraving en aangrenzend aan het plangebied, een begeleiding. Aanleiding voor beide onderzoeken vormde de voorgenomen bochtafsnijding van de Delftse Schie.

Tijdens het onderzoek zijn de restanten van de Oude dijk, dijksloot, terpachtige ophogingen en historische bebouwing aangetroffen. Tevens zijn vermoedelijk de resten van de dam gevonden die in de Schie werd aangelegd, ter voorbereiding van de bouw van de Oude dijk. De ontwikkeling van de bewoning binnen het gebied vond plaats in een landschap dat onder invloed van de mens langzaam veranderde van een natuurlijke omgeving naar een steeds meer gecultiveerde landschapsvorm. Steeds meer land werd voor de landbouw en veeteelt ingericht.

In de Romeinse tijd was het gebied al in gebruik en behoorde tot de periferie van een huisplaats, ten noorden van het plangebied. Romeinse sporen die binnen het plangebied zijn aangetroffen betroffen enkele smalle greppels die in het veen waren uitgegraven. In de periode erna vonden diverse overstromingen plaats en ontstond een uitgebreid veengebied.

Vanaf de 10e eeuw vonden regionale ontginningen plaats en kreeg het landschap langzaam een steeds opener karakter. In deze periode werden er in de omgeving granen, waaronder rogge op de akkers verbouwd. De ontginningen hadden echter wel tot gevolg, dat het land langzaam inklonk en lager kwam te liggen. Hierdoor was het ontvankelijker voor overstromingen. Als reactie hierop werd de polder bedijkt. In de late 12e eeuw werd een dam in de Schie aangelegd, om zo de Oude Dijk te kunnen aanleggen. Aan de voet van de dijk werd vervolgens een dijksloot gegraven. Vrij snel hierna zijn er ophogingen aangebracht en werd daarmee ook de dijksloot aan het oog onttrokken. Botanisch en pollenonderzoek toont aan dat de belangrijkste veranderingen in het landschap in deze periode plaats hebben gevonden. Het landschap droogde op en werd aanzienlijk opener ten gevolge van een toenemend aandeel in de akkerbouw. Op deze ophogingen zijn slechts weinig sporen van bewoning aangetroffen, in de vorm van plaggenwanden en kuilen.

Er werd veel vondstmateriaal aangetroffen in het dijklichaam, de dijksloot en de ophogingen. Het betreft onder andere geïmporteerd aardewerk uit het Duitse Rijnland, als ook lokaal geproduceerd kogelpotaardewerk en hoogversierd aardewerk. Tevens werd er veel tufsteen gevonden, maar ook kloostermoppen en geprofileerde bakstenen. Dat deze vroege bouwmaterialen hier samen werden gevonden, wijst op een datering in de overgangsperiode van tufsteen naar baksteen. Er werden tevens veel metalen voorwerpen verzameld. Het betrof onder andere een beitel, gespen, een lanspunt, knijpscharen, lemmeten van messen, een broche, een ring en een sleutel. Een tot nu toe onbekend type leren instapschoen behoorde ook tot de vondsten. Ten slotte was de vondst van een vrijwel complete houten stoel uit het begin van de 13e eeuw zelfs uniek te noemen.

De vroegste historische vermelding van bewoning binnen het plangebied dateert uit de vroege 15e eeuw. Het betreft een boerderij met de naam ’s Gravenhuize. Aangetroffen restanten die aan deze historische vermeldingen zijn te koppelen waren een laat 14e-eeuwse/vroeg 15e-eeuwse haardplaats en een wandspoor, die onderdeel waren van een vakwerkhuis.

Uit deze periode zijn een aantal metalen voorwerpen geborgen, zoals een mes met lemmet en heft, een knijpschaar, een gesp en een gordelsluiting met een restant leer, een halve groot (munt) en een hoefijzer. Tevens werd onder andere een tweetal leren kinderschoenen en een natuurstenen vijzel gevonden.

In de Nieuwe tijd waren er veel akkers aanwezig in de omgeving. Op deze akkers werden granen, waaronder rogge, verbouwd. Evenals in de Late Middeleeuwen bedreef men vermoedelijk ook veeteelt en werden de graslanden gebruikt voor beweiding met vee. Daarnaast was een deel van de graslanden mogelijk als hooiland in gebruik.

De oudste baksteenbouw op de locatie betreft de westelijke boerderij. Deze dateert uit de 16e eeuw en is op de plek van het voormalige vakwerkhuis gebouwd. Er zijn bij de boerderij aanwijzingen aangetroffen die wijzen op het ambacht van boter maken.

This book explores the role of glazed terracotta sculpture in Renaissance Italy, from c. 1450 to the mid-1530s. In its brightness and intense colour glazed terracotta strongly attracted the viewer’s gaze. Its pure and radiant surfaces also had the power to raise the mind and soul of the faithful to contemplation of the divine. The quasi-magical process of firing earthenware coated with tin-based paste, promoted initially by imports from the East, was seized upon by Luca della Robbia, who realised that glazed terracotta was the ideal vehicle for the numinous. He began to create sculptures in the medium in the 1430s, and continued to produce them for the rest of his life. After Luca’s death, his nephew, Andrea della Robbia, inherited his workshop in Florence and continued to develop the medium, together with his sons. The book considers some of the large-scale altarpieces created by the Della Robbia family in parallel with a number of small-scale figures in glazed terracotta, mostly made by unidentified sculptors. The captivating illustrations integrate these two categories of glazed terracotta sculpture into the history of Italian Renaissance art. By focusing on a specific artistic medium which stimulated piety in both ecclesiastical and domestic contexts, this book offers new ways of thinking about the religious art of the Italian Renaissance. The links it establishes between lay devotion and the creation of religious images in glazed terracotta invite reassessment of habitual distinctions between private and public art.

Open Access: https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484/M.HMSAH-EB.5.129108

Non molti centri produttivi in Italia possiedono una tradizione ceramica plurisecolare paragonabile a quella di Montelupo Fiorentino, e soprattutto poche classi ceramiche possono vantare una presenza così pervasiva sui mercati tirrenici e mediterranei nel corso dell’età moderna come la maiolica montelupina.
Gli studi degli ultimi decenni hanno permesso di conoscere nei particolari gli sviluppi decorativi della produzione e la maiolica di Montelupo, proprio grazie all’attenta analisi stilistica dei motivi dipinti, rappresenta ormai un imprescindibile fossile guida per la datazione dei contesti archeologici dal XV al XIX secolo. L’analisi dei paradigmi formali, invece, è rimasta sullo sfondo della ricerca.
Con questo libro l’autore si propone di colmare tale lacuna costruendo una tipologia sistematica, morfologica e dimensionale, delle maioliche di Montelupo, basata su di un metodo strutturato. 
Dallo studio delle forme in rapporto ai motivi decorativi ed ai contesti di rinvenimento discendono informazioni circostanziate di carattere cronologico per i singoli tipi, ed  il presente lavoro, oltre a permettere di delineare l’evoluzione morfologica della produzione montelupina nel lungo periodo, si configura come uno strumento  fondamentale per la classificazione dei reperti da scavo o dei manufatti presenti in raccolte pubbliche e private.
L’ultima parte del volume si sofferma inoltre sul significato della maiolica di Montelupo come indicatore di status socio-economico nei contesti archeologici. Il confronto tra fonti scritte, contesti ben connotati socialmente e, soprattutto, caratteristiche dimensionali e qualitative dei manufatti, suggerisce una nuova chiave di lettura di questi importanti indicatori, il cui peso informativo è stato spesso trascurato nella letteratura archeologica.

Il volume di 232 pp. di grande formato e riccamente illustrato con 270 esemplari tutti a colori fa parte della Collana "ARTEFATTI DI PUGLIA. Atlante dell'artigianato artistico tradizionale" della Claudio Grenzi Editore.
La prima parte è dedicata all'introduzione storica della maiolica laertina dal XVI al XIX secolo. La seconda parte è dedicata all' "Atlante delle forme e dei decori della maiolica laertina al culmine del suo splendore".

Il volume contiene il catalogo delle ceramiche del recentemente inaugurato Museo di Torre Alemanna, sede dei Cavalieri Teutonici in Capitanata. Il restauro del complesso teutonico, passato poi a Cardinali Abati Commendatari, ha permesso di effettuare una serie di scavi archeologici (1999-2008) che ha restituito una gran quantità di reperti ceramici che costituiscono il nucleo principale dell'esposizione museale.
Pur essendo presenti tutte le usuali classi ceramiche, la parte più importante è costituita dalla ceramica ingobbiata graffita policroma con particolari caratteristiche che ha permesso di definire una tipologia a se stante ("tipo Torre Alemanna"). I capitoli introduttivi riguardano: la storia del monumento; gli scavi archeologici; la graffita policroma con lo studio dei suoi elementi decorativi della sua diffusione; la maiolica. Un capitolo, infine, è dedicato all'emblema O-T proprio del complesso abbaziale di Torre Alemanna apposto su graffite, invetriate e maiolica sia in fase di committenza, sia graffite dopo cottura come segno di proprietà. Segue il corposo catalogo dei reperti.

Andalusia’s fertile landscape has been the source of two of history’s best known storage jar traditions. Both the Roman Dressel 20 amphora and colonial Spanish olive jar originated along the banks of the River Guadalquivir Valley between Seville and Cordoba. These vessel forms are frequently identified as lineal descendants, which can be examined as microcosms of comparative exchange patterns and economics.
Analysis of respective contents, distribution and economic structures indicates that such a correlation is an historical misconception. The Dressel 20 amphora was a single-use container used exclusively to distribute olive oil in vast volumes to Rome and the military frontiers of Germany and Britain as a key part of imperial economic policy. The Roman emperors used the annona civica and annona militaris to provide free and subsidized foodstuffs to pacify the public and maintain military morale. Surplus produce re-circulated commercially on the open market.
Olive jars, by contrast, provided Spanish sailors and colonists across the Americas with familiar home comforts of oil, wine, vinegar and honey, amongst a wide range of other commodities. Botijas circulated within a commercial trade network embedded within the Crown’s mercantilist policy geared towards exploitation largely of the industrial riches of the New World. They may be envisioned as purely commercial by-products, rather than engaged cogs, in Habsburg Spain’s protectionist colonial ambitions.

This vocabulary was part of vaster resarch project on medieval and renaissance pottery from the Pesaro-Urbino area (Northern Marche region, Italy), dealing specifically with the ceramic evidence along the Metauro river basin between the 14th and the 17th century AD.  The project took place between 2005 and 2007, under the supervision of professor Gian Carlo Bojani (at that time, scientific director of the Musei Civici in Pesaro), and involved  a complete survey of all the ceramic heritage held at local museums (both displayed and stored in the museums deposits) [the survey, by far, included collections from Musei Civici in Pesaro, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche - Urbino , Casa Natale di Raffaello - Urbino, Museo Civico and Museo Diocesano in Urbania, Pinacoteca and Museo Civico di Palazzo Malatestiano - Fano and was conducted by the writer). The project was promoted and funded by the Marche Region, together with the Province of Pesaro-Urbino and the Municipality of Pesaro, then scientifically supervised by the Superintendence of Fine Arts for the Marche Region (today Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Marche Region) and by the University of Urbino (chair of medieval archaeology).

Vocabulary part 2, Vessel forms, was developed in the latest stage of the research and focused primarily on the ceramic evidence from the above mentioned collections/geographric area. Although it can not be considered a general reference book with regard to medieval and modern period italian ceramic forms, it certainly offers an exceptional overview on a more limited scale, that is that of the province of Pesaro and that of the Sforza and Montefeltro courts, with which is closely intertwined. GC