History of Ceramics in Tuscany

The area around Siena

The city of Siena and many of the centres in its territory, occupy a prominent position in the history of Italian ceramics due to the earliness and fineness of its glazed ware production. In the area of Siena, in fact, archaic majolica has different characteristics from that of Pisa – more attracted by geometric decoration – and from that of Florence – based on a more modest quality of figurative repertoire. The wealth and imagination of the Sienese tradition and its visible distance from contemporary productions in other regions have suggested at the beginning of the 20th century, that it is more accurately classed with the Umbria- Lazio group and in particular the archaic majolica of Orvieto.
Most of the arguments in favour of the separation of the experience of Siena from the rest of Tuscany were based on the finding of a large number of manufactured majolica waste which can be dated back to the first half of the 13th century, luckily found in the palazzo pubblico of Montalcino. These finds from Montalcino, in fact, as well as showing a clear similarity with the archaic majolica from Siena, also showed a repertoire of very impressive figures, whose use by craftsmen in workshops in the surrounding countryside could not but be attributed to a relatively vast koiné, precisely in the area of central Italy, to which from time immemorial it had had various ties of reciprocal exchange and relationships.
Apart from Siena and Montalcino, a production of glazed ceramics in the early Middle Ages must also have involved Asciano, Montepulciano, Buonconvento and Roccastrada. Certainly this type of manufacture, as recent finds show, was also produced in San Gimignano.

The presence of kaolin clay in Sienese territory, to be used in the engobing (slip glaze), from the middle of the 15th century, favoured the adoption on the part of Sienese potters of an important choice of technique which, moreover, was decided by the evolution of the market. The ever increasing importation into Tuscany of glazed ware produced in the Spanish Levant (originally the only ware called majolica, that is vessels made in Maiorca) had the effect of making archaic majolica obsolete. This, however, continued to be produced with some embellishment in the details until the beginning of the 16th century as a traditional product aimed at the less well off consumer.
The need to diversify the genres, and at the same time, manufacture majolica with an ever paler glaze consequently meant the use of slip glazing of biscuit (which otherwise would be red in colour, due to the presence of iron in the clay, before applying the final glaze. This technique, useful for obtaining a glazed surface without hints of violet, is quite different compared to that adopted by Florentine potters who prepared a clay mixture which, thanks to the addition of lime, became completely white. The technique of slip glazing of biscuit became the distinctive feature of most of the manufacture of the new glazed genres in the area of Siena.

We can safely say, on the basis of present knowledge, that the production of engobed and sgraffitoed glazed ceramics in the area of Siena was mostly concentrated in Asciano and San Gimignano, where archaeological research has recovered a large quantity of waste from manufacture, which can be dated back to mainly between the 15th and 16th centuries. A rather late chronology, which finds similarities in the earthenware production of the main town and which therefore must be deemed characteristic of the whole area. The wide use of slip glaze was encouraged by the presence in the territory of plenty of superficial kaolin fine clay, highly suitable for covering the ceramic biscuit in white.
Leaving aside the early start Pisa had in this field too, it is still significant that a large part of the production of glazed engobed and sgraffitoed ware documented in the second half of the 15th century in the Valdelsa area (Castelfiorentino) and central Valdarno (Montelupo, Pontorme and Empoli), shows a clearly identifiable affinity to equivalent products in Siena, undoubtedly due to a technical and decorative influence exercised by the latter on their Florentine colleagues.

Sienese production in the Renaissance was, however, more in the direction of majolica, using equally the technique of slip glazed biscuit and clay poor in iron, which stayed whiter after the first firing at higher temperatures. The use of colouring was typical of this period. In obedience to the dictates of the times, cobalt blue occupies a prominent position, but it is also accompanied by antimony yellow and rust-orange, creating unusual combinations of warm and cold colours, sometimes made more elaborate through the use of deep, dark and shining black pigment, probably obtained through a mixture of cobalt and manganese.
The most typical decoration of this period of production is the “a grottesca”, with a thousand variations, and which often stand out against yellow or orange backgrounds. Another important feature of this period is the imitation of porcelain, usually in blue monochrome, but following particular graphic methods in creating the main motifs, often coupled with central parts including figures.
Apart from production for pharmaceutical purposes, with typical two handled large jars, there were majolica floors which potters in Siena produced with great enthusiasm, and which were used in the city to decorate its most important monuments.
Immigrant potters from Faenza and Urbino worked in Siena from the end of the 15th century. This additional contribution from outsiders in the past had caused many unjustified conclusions to be drawn which tended to attribute to Sienese majolica a certain dependence on that from Faenza. Despite this, ceramic production in Siena, has its own individual features, still waiting to be evaluated in an overall study.
Further research would collect more evidence and put together all the facts regarding the Renaissance period available to date.

Siena too, like the other places where mainly glazed ceramics were manufactured, felt the first consistent symptoms of a crisis at the end of the 16th century. More and more diminished, in terms of quantity and quality, this work, however, has continued to the present day. The report on the state of manufacture in 1768, showed that there were only three workshops at the time. In addition to that, an examination of account books of this guild, moreover, showed this activity had decreased “by almost three quarters since fifty years ago”.
Parallel with the crisis in traditional manufacture, there appeared to be a chance that a glazed, good quality production, could start up again. This opportunity was taken up by cardinal Flavio Chigi, who, in 1693 constructed a majolica kiln near San Quirico d’Orcia, in Fonte alla Vena, which was followed by the building of two new kilns in villa Cetinale and in Siena in the district of Vico Bello. At the beginning of this activity in the Chigi manufacture, we find local craftsmen such as the painter Giovan Battista Massaini, and then, from 1710, Francesco Antonio Piergentili. But in 1712 the “genoese” (perhaps from Albisola) Stefano Grogio was working in San Quirico. In 1717 the young Bartolomeo Terchi came from Rome to Fonte alla Vena (and moved to Siena in 1724) who, together with a great painter, Ferdinando Maria Campani (1702-1771), known also as the “Raphael of majolica”, took up the decoration with figures of the old “istoriato”, changed them, however, from the stale repetition of illustrations in prints, and felt free to invent scenes from Arcadia.
Despite traces of the continuation of this activity throughout the 18th century, the Chigi firms show clear signs of decadence around the middle of the century, so much so that these are not specifically mentioned in the 1768 report.
Nevertheless, Siena made a comeback in ceramics thanks to the genius of Bernardino Pepi who, from the 1840s, spent his time studying antique Tuscan majolica, which he managed to reproduce with amazing precision, and launched a new “taste” which came also to be known as “historicism”.

Fausto Berti

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

• Terre di Toscana in Siena area
• ASCIANO
• MONTEPULCIANO
• TREQUANDA

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