History of Ceramics in Tuscany

The area around Pisa

The city of Pisa holds a very special place in the events to do with the production of Tuscan ceramics. Already the fervour with which its inhabitants collected all the most beautiful ceramics which were circulating in the Mediterranean area at the beginning of the 11th century, in order to build them into the surfaces of church walls, was probably one of the main reasons which encouraged Tuscan potters to experiment with covering techniques namely with over glazing and slip glazing. Therefore, even though there is at present no evidence of protomajolica or Tyrrhenean sgraffito production which would place Pisa on a level with Savona (and for glazed ware, Gela or Brinidisi), there appears to be no doubt that the first archaic majolica in Tuscany was produced in Pisa.
The characteristic design of archaic majolica from Pisa is geometric. Its shape was also distinctive and made it distinguishable from other similar regional products. In spite of the defeat by the Genoese in Meloria (1284) which put an end to the expansion in the Mediterranean of the Crusader city, at the end of the 14th century, archaic majolica manufactured in Pisa appears to have spread widely along the upper Tyrrhenean coast, to Liguria, Sardinia, Corsica, as well as towns on the Provencal coast, and as far as the Spanish Levant (eastern coast of Spain).

For Pisa and for other towns like Fauglia, La Rotta and Palaia, there are records of a production of unglazed ceramics, thrown on a potter’s wheel using an excellent quality of purified clay. These objects are receptacles for liquid and have been subdivided, according to their size, in “boccali (tankards) and “brocche” (jugs). The manufacture of such objects, once wrongly labelled “anforette pisane” (small Pisan urns), dates back to the 8th century and shows a stage of development in the 11th century, culminating in the second half of the 13th century. Typical of this production are the ribbon or strip handles and the presence of seals pressed into the unbaked clay on the upper part of the handle.

The conquest by Florence (1406) was disastrous for the earthenware industry in Pisa which as a matter of fact seems to coincide with the interruption in the local manufacture of glazed ceramics.
After a few years (in about 1440), potters in Pisa learned to make changes in their work – managing to avoid the obstacle, since they were possibly debarred by Florence from producing majolica – by turning to the production of ceramics with engobing (slip glazed ceramics). Even here they were precursors, since until then in no regional ceramic centre are there signs of the presence of engobing under glazing.
The road opened by potters in Pisa, probably following the example of their colleagues from Liguria or Padania, was soon followed by potters from other areas in Tuscany. In spite of this, craftsmen in Pisa managed to stay at the top in this sector for a long time, wisely taking advantage of the fact that, until 1540 approximately, the attention and most conspicuous investments of Florentine merchants where directed towards glazed ware.
Despite recent studies, there are a lot of unknown elements regarding the factory which Niccolò Sisti from Norcia, ordered by Grand Duke Ferdinand I, in 1590-91 set up in Pisa in order to produce majolica in the style of Urbino. This undertaking was corroborated – but not demonstrated – by the presence of manufactured objects of this type with the inscription “Pisa”, but it still remains uncertain, due to the absence of direct mention of the manufacture of ceramics in archive documents which refer to it mainly in the context of glass production.

Besides Montopoli, Pomarance and Vicopisano, which are dealt with in detail in these pages, earthenware production in the Pisa area is also recorded in Volterra where, as well as a disputed production of archaic majolica, discarded pieces of ceramics have been found which were engobed under the glazing.
The manufacture of majolica in the rest of the territory around Pisa remains today an unsolved problem, since it hardly seems possible that this had been the prerogative of the larger town and that of what appears to be the place with the greatest “vocation”, that is, Vicopisano. Rather than a real absence of such proof, this lacuna might be attributed to the incomplete state of research to date.
As for the engobed ware, whose production spread like wildfire in 16th century Tuscany, there are few certain facts regarding the Pisa area, except in the case of Pomarance and, much more recently, of Volterra. Ceramic finds – likely to have been engobed – are recorded at Palaia, a place not far from Montopoli, which appears to have supplied “clay” (probably for slip glaze) during the 16th century, to potters in Montelupo.
Traces of ancient earthenware must have remained in the more populated towns along the banks of the Arno, given that in Santa Croce and in Calcinaia many factories producing coarse ceramics (and perhaps even kitchen utensils) have been recorded in the Dizionario Geografico Fisico Storico della Toscana by Emanuele Repetti, printed in the early 1840s.

Fausto Berti

• INTRODUCING THE HISTORY OF CERAMICS IN TUSCANY
• A summary
• THE AREAS
• Arezzo
• Firenze - Prato
• Pisa
• Siena

• Terre di Toscana in Pisa area
• MONTOPOLI IN VAL D'ARNO
• VICOPISANO

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