THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD THE HE exhibition of Renaissance material is continued in Gallery 14, which has for its central feature the famous altar-piece painted by the youthful Raphael for the nuns of the Convent of St. Anthony of Padua in Perugia in 1504-05. The largest collection shown in this gallery is that of ITALIAN MAJOLICA, which fills twelve wall cases arranged in order around the room, beginning at the right of the south entrance. In its extent and the remarkable quality of the pieces which compose it, this collection, one of the finest in private possession, illustrates in an exceptional way the splendid achievements of Renaissance ceramic art. The Italian ware known as MAJOLICA differs in its technical aspect from the earlier pottery in the thin coating of opaque, and generally white, stanniferous enamel which protects the surface. This use of stanniferous enamel, probably introduced by or learned from Moorish potters, or directly from the Orient, was known in Italy at least as early as the later years of the fourteenth century, and eventually superseded in popular favor the manufacture of slip-covered "sgraffito" ware, covered with a transparent, plumbeous glaze, which was the characteristic faïence of the Middle Ages and continued to be produced, side by side with true majolica during the Quattrocento. The name "majolica" is derived from the little Spanish island of Majorca, a half-way port in the maritime commerce between Italy and Spain. At first used only to describe the lustred faïence imported from Spain, its use was later extended to include as well the lustred productions of the factories at Gubbio and Deruta. To-day, although incorrectly, we commonly designate as "majolica" not only the lustred, but also the unlustred enameled Renaissance pottery, and give to the earlier slip-covered ware with transparent glaze the somewhat unfortunate name of mezza-majolica. To return, for a moment, to lustred majolica. The application of metallic lustre to enameled pottery appears to have been derived, together with the use of stanniferous enamel, from Saracenic or Oriental potters. The great development of this art in Italy was largely due to the skillful direction of the Gubbio furnaces, where it attained its highest perfection. Pesaro and Deruta claim its still earlier use, but in the sixteenth century the great center of lustring was undoubtedly at Gubbio, where pieces often painted elsewhere, notably in Urbino and Castel Durante, were enriched with metallic lustre, the glitter of gold and silver, and most prized of all, a glowing rubyred. 13 Aside from enameled floor-tiles and sculptures in enameled terracotta, for example, the della Robbia reliefs in Gallery 13 and in this room, together with two Gallery interesting though scarcely beautiful portrait busts by an artist of far less merit, the usual examples of Italian majolica may be broadly divided into two classes: one, of objects destined for daily use; the other, of decorative pieces, piatti di pompa, large plates to be suspended from the wall or exposed upon credenze or sideboards, huge vessels, ornamental pieces which attest the Renaissance love of magnificence and splendor. To this second group belong most of the richly decorated majolica pieces, but this does not argue any lack of beauty in the simpler objects. On the contrary, they are often superior both in design and shape. A well-known class of objects combines both utilitarian and decorative purposes. These are the slightly concave, cylindrical jars intended to hold drugs and accordingly known as "pharmacy vases," or albarelli (little trees), so called because of their resemblance to the short lengths of bamboo which contained the spices imported from the Orient. From the standpoint of pure decoration, early Renaissance majolica is often in many ways finer than the later productions. Ornamental motives, whether or not with representative elements, are treated conventionally in a way suited to their decorative purpose. Even when portraits or figures are introduced, they are rendered naïvely, so that they tell rather as decoration than as representation. But with growing technical facility and the natural change in taste which marked the transition from the spontaneity of the early age to the elegance and luxury of the High Renaissance, there came a growing fondness for a more pictorial rendering of subjects, rarely the invention of the majolica painter, but copied as a rule from contemporary engravings and wood-cuts. Marcantonio's engravings after Raphael were much favored, as several pieces in the present collection bear witness. This tendency was unfortunate on the whole; the Massacre of the Innocents, for example, does not commend itself particularly as an appropriate subject for the decoration of a plate from which one expects to eat. But this must be said by way of justification-the plate was intended only secondarily for use; its principal service was to make part of the brave show which decked the sideboard of some stately room. A few words must be said upon the wide variety of subjects which the majolica painter was called upon to represent. For the religious-minded patron there were figures of saints and incidents from holy legends. Equally popular were the scenes from classical fables and ancient history, portraitheads of Roman emperors, gods and goddesses, all intended |