MARGINALIZED MEDIA I: RENAISSANCE MAJOLICA
This series explores artistic media whose status in the history of art and its importance within its contemporary culture have not always been in agreement.
Majolica was the Italian word for painted, white, tin-glazed ceramics of Islamic origin , which were produced in Spain and imported through Majorca. The name was also applied to the indigenous tin-glazed earthenware and lustreware produced primarily in the Florentine contada in the 15th century, and in the 16th century in Deruta and Gubbio in Umbria, Faenza in the Romagna, and Castel Durante, Urbino and Pesaro in the Marche.
The tin-glazing technique creates an opaque white enamel, which is well-suited for the application of hand-painted decoration. Painted wares were then refired with a translucent slip to protect the decoration. In the 15th century, advances in pigment chemistry expanded the palette of colors available to ceramicists. These technical developments allowed majolica painters to pursue the sophisticated pictorial and decorative effects seen in panel, manuscript and fresco painting.
The ambitious and aesthetically-adventurous producers of Renaissance majolica transformed a centuries-old, humble craft tradition into an advanced mode of artistic medium expression patronized by the most discerning patriciate and nobility in Italy and abroad within a decade or two.
Majolica is still the principal manufacture of Deruta.
Faïence and Delftware are derivatives of Italian majolica.
The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art both have large majolica collections of the highest quality.
After decades of neglect, majolica and its major practitioners have been re-admitted to the canon of Renaissance art. In 2016, the Metropolitan Museum of Art published Timothy Wilson and Luke Syson’s Maiolica: Italian Renaissance Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and mounted the exhibition Renaissance Maiolica: Painted Pottery for Shelf and Trade.