The evolution of the term Majolica or Maiolica is almost as interesting as the development and spread of the style itself. There are four different meanings associated with the term:
1. In origin, the word is a medieval Italian form of the name of the island Majorca off the coast of Spain.
2. Renaissance Italians used the term to describe Hispano-Moresque imports and other luster wares, which were sometimes shipped through Majorca to Italy.
3. In modern Italian (and some parts of Italy in the 16th century) its meaning was broadened to ‘tin glazed earthenware’.
4. In English, it is used to refer to tin glazed earthenware in the stylistic tradition of the Italian Renaissance.
The principal colors of Maiolica are: blue (cobalt), green (copper), purple and brown (manganese), yellow (antimony), orange (antimony and iron) and white (tin).
Ceramic Origins
Tin glazed items were not invented by the Italians, in fact the beauty of eastern ceramics had been well known to the Renaissance Italians for a long time.
The first examples of this technique were found in Baghdad and dated to the 9th Century - there symmetrical patterns were painted in blue and white.
However by the by the end of the 11th century Islamic pottery, including lusterware, had been in widespread use for the embellishment of religious and civic buildings. Ceramics were thought to have been introduced by the crusaders as trophies demonstrating victories over the pagans by powerful Christian forces.
During the 13th through to the early 15th centuries, Tuscany maintained trade relations with Moorish Spain and imported large quantities of lusterware from there. This is about the time that the Italians began to work with tin glazed ware.
The map below shows the sweeping migration of tin glazed tradition from Baghdad, then with the advance of Islam, it was carried the length of the Northern African seaboard into Moorish Spain, this occurred during the 10th Century. Then during the 13th Century through to the 15th Century, Spanish pottery was transported through Majorca to Italy.
The Italians took great pains to copy the styles of the Spanish and Islamic designs but were still learning about the production of luster tones which were found on these tin glazed ceramics. In place of the luster, the Italians imitated the effect by using a manganese-based, orange-yellow color.
Italian Maiolica eventually dominated the pottery of Europe and set a trend that lasted more than three hundred years.
The most common surviving pieces from the earliest period of majolica are storage vessels made for monastic pharmacies, usually labeled to indicate their contents and decorated with contemporary Hispano-Moresque motifs or the symbols of saints credited with healing powers. Because of Islamic prohibitions against it, the human form was rarely depicted on majolica pottery prior to 1450 but became characteristic of its design by the beginning of the 16th century. The majolica of Deruta is noted for its stylized portrait heads and figures and seems to have been the first Italian ware to adopt (c.1500) the Valencia technique of using luster glazes to produce metallic and iridescent effects. From Deruta the technique was probably brought to Gubbio, where a ruby-red luster color was evolved. Relief-molded wares, designed to enhance the brilliance of the iridescence, were produced at both towns.
In the late 15th century majolica became more decorative and less functional. Dishes and vases were designed primarily for display, especially the pictorial narrative styles associated with Urbino. Subjects for illustration were taken from Roman history, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, and occasionally from contemporary literature. Imagery was often derived from engravings or from woodcut book illustrations.
Sixteenth-century majolica decoration evolved away from pictorials and was frequently derived from engravings of ornamental motifs, published for the use of decorative designers. These motifs, following the prevalent enthusiasm for Greek and Roman antiquities, conjured up a pagan world populated by cupids, satyrs, sphinxes, and other mythical beings. Acanthus foliage, palmettos, and the Roman "trophy" of arms were common motifs. From the East, by way of Venice and Islamic metalworkers there, came the arabesque style, a continuous interlacing of formalized leaves and branches. At Urbino a sophisticated style evolved that consisted of a bizarre medley of winged monsters, grotesque semi human creatures, urns, and masks, linked by swags and garlands. These delicately painted, whimsical grotesque elements were set off by a technically perfect white glaze. The Urbino factories also produced small statues, whose forms were inspired by contemporary work in bronze. The ultimate reaction against the overworked polychrome narrative style was the plain white ware of Faenza, the thick glaze appreciated for its own sake. The dispersal of majolica craftsmen, particularly from Faenza, exerted a profound influence on European pottery styles and, in particular, of the Netherlands, where, in the early 17th century, the tin-glaze technique was taken up and used to imitate Chinese porcelain.
Betty Elzea Bibliography: Pica, Agnoldomenico, Italian Majolica Tile, trans. by James Pallas (1971); Rackham, Bernard, Italian Maiolica (1952); Schneider, Mike, Majolica (1989).
