RENAISSANCE CERAMICS

Starting in the late 15th - early 16th century, Faenza majolica undergoes a change . The gothic and oriental motifs characteristic, at least in part, of late medieval or " archaic" phase production, and of the early Renaissance, or "severe" slowly abandoned, and the transition to a new, purely Italian decorative language takes place.
Tipically Renaissance ornamemtation appears on majolica ceramics , now at the height of technical perfection .There are four -petaled flowers , the guilloche and egg and dart motifs , rosettes, and above all the human figure , which bit by bit gains importance, although at the beginning of the 16th century its basis is still essentially the indication of an ideal "type": the lady of rank, the page, the musician, the allegorical figure, or the beatiful woman.
The greater cultural freedom and the closer relation- ship between majolica craftsmen and painters after the turn of the century led ceramics away from the heraldic and decorative figures to a more personal and deeply felt expression of the human form, and initiated a new style, called "istoriato " for its extraordinary narrative gusto.
Nearly all of the Faenza masters were anonymous - at most they used monograms or the initials of their name to sign the back of their vessels . Their work depicts the great biblical and mythological scenes which their cultivated patrons presented to them to be copied from illustrated books and prints.
Some general stylistic characteristics of the first figurative phase, or "early istoriato " (ca. 1500 - 1525) are : great care in the drawing, a delicate juxtaposition of chromatic tones, and a knowing balance between the formal and decorative elements.
When the majolica craftsman of Faenza had achieved greater harmony and narrative ease for the figurative parts of the "istoriato", they went on to new, sophsisticated techinical innovations, among them the bluegrey "berettino" majolicas on which decorative motifs such as grotesques, trophies of war, festoons of leaves and fruit, and quarterings were executed in opaque white on a light or dark blue tin glaze ground .This is the "bello", the "beautiful" or "second istoriato" style, marked by the work of such masters as Baldassarre Manara, Pirotto Paterni and his sons (Cà Pirota), and Virgiliotto Calamelli.
The effects reached by this decorative style between 1550 and 1580 are insuperable: on embossed and moulded forms copied from metal prototypes (silver and pewter ) hightly articulated decoration covers nearly the whole of the object . This is the triumph of the "fiorito " or flowered style of Faenza majolica . In it, the motifs of the "bello" reappear and are further developed, and above all so are the new "Raphaelesque"decorations developed from the earlier grotesques.