EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY CERAMICS

The panorama of ceramics production in Faenza during the 18th century has, without a doubt, one outstanding phenomenonthe Conti Ferniani Manufactory, whose life began in October 1693 Count Annibale Carlo Ferniani took over the old Cavina - Grossi - Tonducci Manufactory. From that day, and for the following two centuries, this factory set its mark and character on a good part of the ceramics porduced by this city of Romagna.
At the start, factory production continued mainly in the so - called " Faenza white ware " tradition, but towards the middle of the 18th century it opened its doors to the middle of the new taste in decoration, inspired on the one hand by European - especially French - fashion, and on the other by exotic elements, as in " chinoiserie "decoration, whose spread was due in great parat to the massive importation of Chinese and Japanese porcelain by the East India Companies. But the Ferniani Manufactory also played an important part in the history of Faenza ceramics as a technological innovator.
There, during the second half of the century, the "petit feu " technique took its place beside traditional work methods , and a new ceramics product, of English origin, was adopted - terraglia , or cream- colored earthenware.Originally a porcelain technique , the "petit feu "(600°) made it possible to further enrich the range of colors employed at that time, and ceramics painters excelled in it.
There were Benini and Ragazzini and, above all, Filippo Comerio of Bergamo whose subjects - beggars, bare landscapes, small figures, done in a brilliant transparent green againist a manganese black outline - engendered the so- called "Comerio" type. In 1778 terraglia , or cream - colored earthenware , took its place beside traditional majolica . Skillful sculptors - such as Alessandro Tomba, Antonio Trentanove, G. Pani, Giambattista Sangiorgi , Giambattista and Francesco Ballanti, and others - would soon use it to make plstic groups representing mythological subjects in the round, and extremely refined crockery with ornamentation in relief.
Towards the end of the century and at the beginning of the next, the various vessels making up a table service were adorned with a new, delicate decoration. There were vine leaves, festoons, acorns, mainly used on flat plates, vases, tureens - forms whose simplicity and linearity revealed the new neoclassical taste.
In the 19th century, both the Ferniani Manufactory and other , minor shop returned to traditional grand feu decoration (920°) while continuing to produce terraglia.
The tendency in this return was to retrieve the techniques of the old masters and to reappraise the classical themes of 16th century Faenza majolica , especially "Raphaelesque" decoration.
During the second half of the century, around 1870, an actual school of majolica painting was founded under the leaderschip of Achille Farina, a majolica craftsman and painter who had mastered the craft at the Ferniani Manufactory. This school, with its imitation of easel painting techniques, has left us a good many watercolors, scenic views and naturalistc portraits.