Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...found in the locality, which Passeri declares to be superior to that of Vicenza, for the superficial coating of the coarser material. Painted majolica was produced towards the close of the fifteenth century. To this several tile pavements of early date bear witness. The earliest one, made for the Oratorio di Santa Caterina in Fontebranda, was begun in 1480 and completed in 1504. Another, of which remains are still in existence, adorned the Bichi chapel in Sant' Agostino. This was the work of two native artists, Pietro and Niccolo di Lorenzo Mazzaburroni, who painted it in 1488. The celebrated pavement of the Palazzo di Pandolfo Petruccio, reproduced in the folio volumes of Brenci and Botellini, was begun in 1509. Had Siena produced nothing more than these admirable pavements, its name would still deserve a place in the roll of the most prominent majolica factories. The possibility of this work having been executed in Faenza--as is the case with the Bologna and other pavements--cannot be entertained. It must be acknowledged, however, that the influence of Faenza, Castel-Durante, Gubbio, etc., is unmistakable. The painters who collaborated in the completion of this gigantic task had been trained in one or the other of these high schools of ceramic painting; each painter has confined his contribution to the general scheme to the introduction of unchanged reminiscences of the style he was wont to practise in former days. The result is an immense variety of detail, a richness of motives unparalleled in a work of such magnitude. But from a medley of designs and effects of colours which, taken separately, remind us of tastes and modes of treatment peculiar to other places, it is almost impossible to determine what could be the characteristics of...