CERAMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY RENAISSANCE

Faenza, with its earth rich in modelling clay, and a geographical position which made it the meeting ground for the cultures of the Po Valley and of Tuscany, had already established itself as a leading ceramics center in medieval times.
A new necessity arose, the product, the raw clay vessel or biscuit , had to be provided with a white background to enhance its decoration. During the 12th and 13th centuries, on simple forms generally subordinated to the requirements of household use (pans, bowls, jugs), the city’s potters devised, developed and perfected two techniques for covering their products: tin glaze (vitreous white) and engobe (earthy white).
The white-coated surface then was decorated, either with a brush and paints, or with a sharp pointed instrument on the engobe. Subjects were taken from the repertoire of ornamentation in the applied arts of the time (textiles, goldsmithery, miniatures), and mainly consisted in plant motifs (vine shoots, flowers, palmettes), motifs of fauna (fishes, fantastic birds), and heraldic motifs.
The last group is extremely important, for in it references often appear to the individuals and families that have left their mark on the city’s history.
After the medieval period or "archaic" phase, came a perfecting of Faenza ceramics, especially of majolica, both in the whiteness and density of its coat (tin-glaze) and in its chromatic range - and also because new colors were adopted, including an intense yellow and a brillant blue.
Taken as a whole, the Faenza workshop production of the early Renaissance, called the "severe" style for its use of clearly defined and recurrent ornamental motifs, may be divided into two major periods, each including various "families" or smaller decorative groupings.
During the first period, grafted onto motifs from the "archaic" or medieval phase is decoration partially deriving from the Byzantine world, as in the "zaffera blue relief" family, and partially from the arabic culture of the Moorish craftsmen in Spanish workshops, as in the "Italo-Moresque" family. During the second period, there grew up alongside the Gothic-style motifs of the "floral-gothic" family, ornamentation originating in the Middle and Far East and constituting the decorative families named "peacock feather ocelli", "persian palmette", and "alla porcellana".