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A history of Italian tiles - Infotile

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figure a<br />

Figure A. De Sphaera manuscript .. c.1450-60. An astrological primer ...<br />

painting and sculpture. The depiction <strong>of</strong> a checkerboard floor<br />

in blue and white ceramic <strong>tiles</strong>, possibly <strong>of</strong> Spanish origin,<br />

facilitates the artist’s attempt to suggest perspective.


A History <strong>of</strong> <strong>Italian</strong> Tiles - Part III<br />

The Rinascimento (Part I)<br />

Man, The Measure <strong>of</strong> All Things<br />

By Garreth Cruikshank<br />

“When I first undertook [this work]<br />

I did not intend to compile a list<br />

<strong>of</strong> artists with, say, an inventory <strong>of</strong><br />

their works... Those historians who<br />

are generally agreed to have produced<br />

the soundest work have not been<br />

satisfied just to give a bald narrative <strong>of</strong><br />

the facts but have also... investigated<br />

the ways and means and methods<br />

used by successful men in forwarding<br />

their enterprises... the best historians<br />

have tried to show how men have<br />

acted... recognising that <strong>history</strong> is<br />

the true mirror <strong>of</strong> life, they have not<br />

simply given a dry, factual account <strong>of</strong><br />

what happened... but have explained<br />

the opinions, counsels, decisions and<br />

plans that lead men to successful or<br />

unsuccessful action. This is the true<br />

spirit <strong>of</strong> <strong>history</strong>, which fulfils its true<br />

purpose in making men prudent and<br />

showing them how to live, apart from<br />

the pleasure it brings in presenting<br />

past events as if they were in the<br />

present... I have endeavoured not only<br />

to record what the artists have done<br />

but also note with some care the<br />

methods, manners, styles, behaviour<br />

and ideas <strong>of</strong> the artists. I have tried<br />

as well as I know how to help people<br />

who cannot find out for themselves<br />

to understand the sources and origins<br />

<strong>of</strong> various styles, and the reasons for<br />

the improvement or decline <strong>of</strong> the arts<br />

at various times and among different<br />

people” - Giorgio Vasari: Preface To<br />

Part II - Lives Of The Artists.<br />

“Eh, Garreth! Ciao. How are you How<br />

is the article going”<br />

Giovanni Favoriti, the brilliant young<br />

head chef at Baci Baci in Darlinghurst,<br />

came over and sat at my table. I was<br />

early and the restaurant hadn’t started<br />

to fill up yet.<br />

“I’m well Gio, but the article is taking<br />

longer than I hoped. There’s more to<br />

the Renaissance than meets the eye,<br />

let me tell you.”<br />

“You speak <strong>of</strong> the Renaissance, but<br />

this is not correct. ‘Renaissance’ is<br />

a French word to describe a great<br />

period <strong>of</strong> <strong>Italian</strong> <strong>history</strong> and culture.<br />

The French had nothing to do with<br />

it. You should use the <strong>Italian</strong> word -<br />

Rinascimento! Wait, I get something<br />

to drink.”<br />

‘Rinascimento’. As I sat quietly<br />

repeating the word to get the<br />

pronunciation right, I recalled an earlier<br />

conversation, in Forli, with the old lady<br />

Signora Poletta. She had used the<br />

word too, as she slowly unravelled the<br />

story <strong>of</strong> the journals and their author<br />

- ‘Pr<strong>of</strong>essore Bodkin’ from England.<br />

“It’s the same with food. The French<br />

did not know how to cook.” As he said<br />

this Giovanni plonked a bottle <strong>of</strong> Primo<br />

Estate ‘98 shiraz sangiovese, named Il<br />

Briconne, on the table.<br />

“This goes very well with Sicilian style<br />

food. Salute.”<br />

“Salute.”<br />

“When Catherine de’ Medici married<br />

Henry II <strong>of</strong> France, she took her<br />

Florentine cooks with her. French<br />

cuisine evolved from those cooks.”<br />

Despite his imperfect English, Gio<br />

spoke with passion and eloquence<br />

on this and other topics. If I told you<br />

that we discussed food and sex and<br />

women and love and art... would you<br />

be surprised<br />

A few more diners arrived. The<br />

proprietors, Anthony and Steve,<br />

greeted them. Giovanni took another<br />

sip <strong>of</strong> wine and rose from his seat.<br />

“What will you have”<br />

“What do you recommend”<br />

“Leek and pumpkin soup, with the<br />

pumpkin blossom tempura style. The<br />

duck liver spinach torta served with<br />

a rich rosemary sauce. To finish -<br />

balsamic vinegar ice-cream and<br />

handmade biscotti. I have just made a<br />

fresh batch.”<br />

Gio’s highly original desserts were<br />

becoming legendary, so I readily<br />

agreed to all his suggestions. With a<br />

grin and a “ciao”, this son <strong>of</strong> Lipari,<br />

the fifth member <strong>of</strong> his island family<br />

to become a chef, went back to his<br />

‘cucina’. For <strong>Italian</strong>s generally, but<br />

Sicilians particularly, traditions count.<br />

I sipped my shiraz sangiovese and<br />

waited for my meal.<br />

“The handsome, young pr<strong>of</strong>essore<br />

would spend most mornings in his<br />

room reading and writing. After lunch,<br />

which I would take up to him, he<br />

would go to the library or visit one <strong>of</strong><br />

the churches or palazzi to draw. His<br />

father was a vicar. Sometimes the<br />

signore would show me his drawings.<br />

Of course I was just a young girl in<br />

those days, but he was very patient<br />

when I asked him questions about his<br />

research on the Rinascimento. I was a<br />

little bit in love with him you see.”<br />

“In the evenings Signor Bodkin would<br />

usually be seen drinking and talking in<br />

one <strong>of</strong> the many bars or caffes that<br />

surround Piazza Saffi. Such places were<br />

popular with artists and intellectuals to<br />

meet and discuss art and politics.”<br />

“He was always travelling - Urbino,<br />

Ravenna, Mantova. On his many<br />

expeditions to the great cities <strong>of</strong><br />

Tuscany he would sometimes visit an<br />

English lady living in Florence. I believe<br />

she was married to a local aristocrat.<br />

They discussed Rinascimento art and<br />

culture. She must have been a very<br />

learned lady.”<br />

At this point Patrizia, my friend and<br />

interpreter, and I rose to leave. We<br />

thanked Signora Poletta for her time<br />

and promised to return soon. We left<br />

her sitting there with her memories.<br />

Once we reached Piazza Saffi Patrizia<br />

and I parted, I heading back to my<br />

hotel and the journals <strong>of</strong> Pr<strong>of</strong>essore<br />

Bodkin.<br />

It was clear to me from reading his<br />

notes that Bodkin’s first love was<br />

the Rinascimento, and his decision to<br />

open the third volume with a quote<br />

from Vasari’s Lives <strong>of</strong> the Artists (see<br />

above) was both apposite and, as<br />

we will subsequently discover, a trifle<br />

ironic.<br />

Like Vasari, Bodkin chooses to start his<br />

observations at a period not long after<br />

the death <strong>of</strong> Dante and Giotto - 1348,<br />

and Italy in the aftermath <strong>of</strong> the Black<br />

Death, which is estimated to have<br />

wiped out one third <strong>of</strong> the population.<br />

The consequences <strong>of</strong> this plague -<br />

economic, psychological, social and


figure B<br />

artistic were, in part, such that as<br />

the population fell demand for labour<br />

stabilised and inflation became<br />

minimal, which led to increased wages<br />

and a broader based social prosperity.<br />

Naturally, art historians have sought a<br />

link between this devastating event<br />

and ensuing artistic developments.<br />

Two theories that have emerged in<br />

the last few decades deserve some<br />

attention. The first presents the theory<br />

that the plague and the social chaos<br />

that followed resulted in a rejection <strong>of</strong><br />

the avant-garde naturalism <strong>of</strong> Giotto<br />

and his disciples in the early 14th<br />

century and a return to an earlier, more<br />

traditional form, exhibiting spiritual,<br />

iconic images. However, another<br />

historian has argued that the increase<br />

in conventional pictorial styles could be<br />

explained by the expanding market for<br />

devotional artwork sought by emerging<br />

social groups who had hitherto been<br />

unable to afford them or disinclined to<br />

want them. Consequently workshop<br />

production became more organised<br />

and sophisticated, but as prices fell<br />

so too did the quality. Only during the<br />

early part <strong>of</strong> the quarttrocento did a<br />

smaller or more discriminating group <strong>of</strong><br />

patrons express a taste for expensive<br />

and innovative works <strong>of</strong> art.<br />

Perhaps the most definitive portrait we<br />

have <strong>of</strong> a member <strong>of</strong> this emergent<br />

social group is provided by the letters<br />

figure C<br />

figure C. Hexagonal maiolica floor<br />

tile, circa 1465, from the<br />

duomo at capua. it shows<br />

a craftsman at work.<br />

<strong>of</strong> the wealthy 14th century merchant<br />

Francesco Datini, published in The<br />

Merchant <strong>of</strong> Prato by Iris Origo. In<br />

1358 Datini, who had planned his<br />

house for many years, bought land in<br />

Prato, but progress was very slow. It<br />

was 1388 before the upstairs loggia<br />

was nearing completion. By summer<br />

the inner walls were plastered and the<br />

brick floors were being laid.<br />

An inventory drawn up in 1407<br />

described it as “a large and handsome<br />

house... with a court and loggia and a<br />

cellar, all painted and fine,” and set its<br />

value at 1,000 florims. All Francesco’s<br />

downstairs rooms had vaulted ceilings<br />

- some <strong>of</strong> them painted - and “brick<br />

floors, carefully polished and waxed.”<br />

In this period the division between<br />

what we class the fine arts and the<br />

decorative arts did not exist. If anything<br />

the latter took precedence over the<br />

former and to draw a firm distinction<br />

between artists and artisans, or<br />

between high art and craft, will miss<br />

the true nature <strong>of</strong> both. For example,<br />

we now know that Sandro Botticelli’s<br />

painting <strong>of</strong> the ‘Primavera’ was once<br />

part <strong>of</strong> a freestanding or day-bed.<br />

At about this point Bodkin returns<br />

to the issue <strong>of</strong> a reaction to Giotto’s<br />

naturalism which he had noticed well<br />

before it was developed into a theory.<br />

He points out that in Naples and<br />

the north, where Giotto also worked,<br />

there was no discernable shift. Indeed<br />

his admiration for Giotto seems only<br />

slightly less than Vasari’s, whom he<br />

quotes here. “In my opinion painters<br />

owe to Giotto... exactly the same debt<br />

they owe to nature, which constantly<br />

serves them as a model and whose<br />

finest and most beautiful aspects<br />

they are always striving to imitate and<br />

reproduce.”<br />

Giotto (1266/7-1337) was apprenticed<br />

to Cimabue (1240-1302) and together<br />

they paved the way for the painters <strong>of</strong><br />

the Rinascimento. As Vasari puts it, “In<br />

this work [the fresco for the hospital<br />

<strong>of</strong> the Porcellana] Cimabue broke<br />

decisively with the dead tradition <strong>of</strong><br />

the Greeks, for whereas their paintings<br />

and mosaics were covered with heavy<br />

lines and contours, his draperies,<br />

vestments and other accessories were<br />

somewhat s<strong>of</strong>ter and more realistic<br />

and flowing.”<br />

In transactions with the artists who<br />

painted his house, we see Datini to<br />

be impatient and exacting and miserly<br />

when it came to pay. Almost all the<br />

orders for pictures from his branch<br />

<strong>of</strong>fice in Avignon specify the precise<br />

measurement required; the price <strong>of</strong> a<br />

picture largely depending on its actual<br />

size, and on the quality <strong>of</strong> the colours<br />

used.<br />

Figure B. the sienese she-wolf<br />

surrounded by the<br />

symbols <strong>of</strong> the allied<br />

cities completed<br />

originally in 1373 in<br />

marble mosaic it was<br />

recomposed by leopoldo<br />

maccari in 1864-65. it<br />

graces the floor <strong>of</strong> the<br />

nave in the cathedral<br />

<strong>of</strong> siena. the work<br />

symbolises the heritage<br />

<strong>of</strong> rome, and the ancient<br />

cities <strong>of</strong> etruria which<br />

are each depicted by a<br />

specific creature.<br />

Giotto was the greater <strong>of</strong> the two<br />

painters and eventually his reputation<br />

brought him to the attention <strong>of</strong> Pope<br />

Benedict IX, who ordered him “to<br />

decorate the interior <strong>of</strong> St Peter’s.<br />

First Giotto painted in fresco an angel<br />

fourteen feet high... The Navicella<br />

mosaic above the three doors <strong>of</strong><br />

the portico in the courtyard <strong>of</strong> St<br />

Peter’s is also by Giotto; this is a<br />

really miraculous work, rightly praised<br />

by all discerning minds because <strong>of</strong><br />

the excellence <strong>of</strong> the drawing and<br />

the grouping <strong>of</strong> the apostles who in<br />

various attitudes strain to guide their<br />

boat through the raging sea while the<br />

wind fills a sail which seems to be<br />

in such high relief that it looks real.<br />

I must have been extremely difficult<br />

to achieve with pieces <strong>of</strong> glass the<br />

harmonious composition shown in the<br />

lights and shadows <strong>of</strong> the great sail;<br />

even a painter working deftly with his


figure D<br />

brush would have found the task<br />

challenging. And Giotto also succeeded<br />

in conveying by the attitude <strong>of</strong> a<br />

fisherman who is throwing his line<br />

from a rock and on whose face is a<br />

look <strong>of</strong> eager anticipation... This work<br />

thoroughly deserves the praise if has<br />

won from all other artists.”<br />

What Vasaris’s description shows us<br />

is that by this time mosaic technique<br />

had capitulated to the dominant artistic<br />

form <strong>of</strong> the period - fresco. Pietro<br />

Cavallini and Jacopo Turriti, despite<br />

their work in mosaic, like Giotto<br />

produced their greatest work in fresco,<br />

which better expressed the social and<br />

aesthetic values <strong>of</strong> the rising middle<br />

class. This new society - survivors <strong>of</strong><br />

the Black Death, legatees <strong>of</strong> Dante<br />

and Bocaccio, required a new artistic<br />

form to give visual expression to<br />

their cultural values. Mosaic, with its<br />

formal and chromatic simplification<br />

and spiritual frame <strong>of</strong> reference was<br />

unsuited to the task.<br />

Anthony came and removed my very<br />

empty soup bowl and topped up my<br />

glass. He didn’t bother to ask if I had<br />

enjoyed it - the state <strong>of</strong> the bowl said<br />

it all.<br />

As I waited for the main course my mind<br />

began to focus on the Rinascimento<br />

proper. Rinascimento, Renaissance -<br />

call it what you will - it seemed to me to<br />

represent the birth <strong>of</strong> modern Western<br />

civilisation as much as a rebirth <strong>of</strong><br />

classical learning. It is easy to see the<br />

Rinascimento as merely a transition<br />

from the culmination <strong>of</strong> mediaeval<br />

trends to the foretaste <strong>of</strong> Baroque.<br />

And certainly while that is true to some<br />

extent, it is equally true <strong>of</strong> every epoch.<br />

But even more than most periods the<br />

Rinascimento was an age <strong>of</strong> transition.<br />

It wanted to be seen as different from<br />

the preceding age, virtually naming<br />

itself (an unprecedented gesture), and<br />

formulating the notion that it has given<br />

‘rebirth’ to Roman and Greek learning<br />

and culture.<br />

To the idea <strong>of</strong> superiority over the<br />

mediaeval period, the Rinascimento<br />

added a twist - it wanted to remain<br />

traditional, but the tradition <strong>of</strong> antiquity<br />

not Christianity. This period looked<br />

back to a mythical past and aspired<br />

to be not merely like it but better,<br />

by synthesising antique and modern<br />

knowledge.<br />

Its realisation <strong>of</strong> being different<br />

from the preceding period gave the<br />

Rinascimento an historical perspective,<br />

in effect a vantage point from which it<br />

could survey and comment on the<br />

past, and made it sharply aware <strong>of</strong><br />

the value <strong>of</strong> leaving monuments for<br />

posterity, in ink as much as in stone:<br />

Ghiberti, Vasari and Leon Battista<br />

Alberta, to name just three whose<br />

writings have permanently shaped our<br />

cultural perceptions.<br />

The typical tendencies <strong>of</strong> Early<br />

Rinascimento art to place man in his<br />

own environment (e.g. Gentile Bellini’s<br />

‘Procession <strong>of</strong> the True Cross in Piazza<br />

San Marco’), itself realised with the<br />

maximum science, was the product<br />

<strong>of</strong> an intellectual climate not naturally<br />

suitable for the flourishing <strong>of</strong> the arts.<br />

Indeed the early Rinascimento placed<br />

more emphasis in art on knowledge<br />

than on beauty, and as a result there<br />

is a pronounced naturalism in much<br />

<strong>of</strong> the sculpture and painting which it<br />

produced. The Rinascimento seems<br />

on occasion to want confidence in ART<br />

as such, to inhibit imagination in a way<br />

not done by the mediaeval period.<br />

figure D. This late 15th or early ... Hispano-Moresque design. Over four and<br />

a half centuries later this same pattern and others like it were<br />

being manufactured by <strong>Italian</strong> companies and exported around the<br />

world, including Australia.<br />

The Rinascimento also manifested a<br />

new interest in ‘nature’, though it no<br />

more discovered nature than it did<br />

antiquity. When Leonardo drew his<br />

plant study he was urged on by truth<br />

to natural observation (see Vasari’s


comments on Giotto, above). Art<br />

for him is a matter not <strong>of</strong> outward<br />

splendour; its splendours are cerebral<br />

ones. With Leonardo art was constantly<br />

being replaced by the desire to know.<br />

The method was more important than<br />

the results.<br />

Knowledge was valued as something<br />

desirable in itself, and while certain<br />

areas were <strong>of</strong>f-limits to the over<br />

zealous mind and eye, such as doctrine<br />

(consider the Churches treatment<br />

<strong>of</strong> Galileo), the burgeoning number<br />

<strong>of</strong> universities, the importance <strong>of</strong><br />

libraries, the impact <strong>of</strong> printing, were<br />

all signs <strong>of</strong> the desire for knowledge<br />

and the wish to know the truth <strong>of</strong><br />

things. Man himself became a less<br />

passive creature, less the subject <strong>of</strong><br />

revelation and more himself the one<br />

who revealed.<br />

With an understated flourish my duck<br />

liver and spinach torta was placed<br />

before me. Here was a revelation<br />

indeed.<br />

Rinascimento art encouraged the<br />

spectator to reflect on his own<br />

reactions, both mental and physical,<br />

to what he was looking at. Beyond<br />

the researches <strong>of</strong> Paolo Uccello<br />

in the field <strong>of</strong> perspective or the<br />

technical innovations <strong>of</strong> Brunelleschi’s<br />

architecture, a special knowledge was<br />

enshrined: knowledge not only <strong>of</strong> what<br />

the eye could see and the hand could<br />

accomplish, but self knowledge. No<br />

more simply the minutely observed<br />

surface detail <strong>of</strong> Giotto’s naturalism<br />

but psychological insight. When we<br />

view Early Rinascimento masterpieces<br />

we are meant to refer back to our<br />

own experience and thus confirm<br />

their utter truthfulness. Experience<br />

has passed from being a subjective<br />

state <strong>of</strong> mind into being objectively<br />

rendered in stone and paint.<br />

This new relationship between what<br />

art expresses and what a human being<br />

perceives and feels is shown to crystal<br />

perfection in two masterpieces (clearly<br />

there are many others, but Bodkin<br />

singles these two out): Mantegna’s<br />

fresco <strong>of</strong> the Gonzaga court <strong>of</strong> Mantua,<br />

and the ‘Mona Lisa’. In Mantegna’s<br />

fresco the Gonzaga court are not being<br />

put on public display, nor are they<br />

stirring us to admire their heroism or<br />

their beauty or their virtue, only their<br />

vitality. No claim is made for these<br />

people except that they are human<br />

- thence comes their dignity. With the<br />

‘Mona Lisa’ her realism is not a matter<br />

<strong>of</strong> surfaces but <strong>of</strong> depth. This is not<br />

so much what a person actually looks<br />

like as an attempt to convey in paint<br />

the impression <strong>of</strong> a personality. She<br />

comes to us without title or wealth,<br />

an ordinary, rather plain woman,<br />

nevertheless meriting our attention<br />

and respect, as she did Leonardo’s, by<br />

virtue <strong>of</strong> her humanity.<br />

Art <strong>of</strong> all kinds was seeking - and<br />

finding - new methods <strong>of</strong> involving<br />

people in its aura, postulating a climate<br />

<strong>of</strong> pleasure rather than instruction.<br />

The decorative arts were no longer<br />

employed solely to serve the Church<br />

and Princes, but helped to make a<br />

prosperous citizen’s environment<br />

agreeable and ‘artistic’.<br />

Unlike some later art theorists,<br />

the architect Leon Battista Alberti<br />

emphasised that painting attempts<br />

to please the masses and he saw<br />

nothing wrong in that. Behind all his<br />

artistic instructions there is clearly<br />

present the standard <strong>of</strong> man, his<br />

needs and legitimate pleasures. For<br />

Alberti, as for the ancient Greeks<br />

“man is the measure <strong>of</strong> all things.”<br />

In his architectural treatise DE RE<br />

AEDIFICATORIA he takes a broad<br />

civic view <strong>of</strong> his subject... The city<br />

becomes virtually a mirror <strong>of</strong> the<br />

harmoniously arranged universe, with<br />

all its buildings disposed according to<br />

their function. The ultimate purpose<br />

<strong>of</strong> the city is to provide the best<br />

possible setting in which the citizens<br />

can live. The architect’s purpose is to<br />

“serve successfully and with dignity<br />

the needs <strong>of</strong> man.”<br />

figure E<br />

Alberti maintains that man remains<br />

the standard, not only in the sense <strong>of</strong><br />

creating and inhabiting what is built, but<br />

in giving his proportions as the standard<br />

by which a harmonious building is<br />

judged. Luca Pacioli, a pupil <strong>of</strong> Piero<br />

della Francesca and friend <strong>of</strong> Alberti and<br />

Leonardo, claimed that in the human<br />

body were to be found all ratios and<br />

proportions “by which God reveals the<br />

innermost secrets <strong>of</strong> nature.”<br />

The aim <strong>of</strong> such art is clear: to express<br />

the fundamental cosmic truths <strong>of</strong><br />

proportion, order and harmony which<br />

lie beneath external appearances.<br />

Restraint is essential. Exaggerated<br />

ornament is likely to militate against<br />

true beauty: “a certain regular harmony<br />

<strong>of</strong> all parts <strong>of</strong> a thing, <strong>of</strong> such a kind<br />

that nothing could be added or taken<br />

away or altered without making it less<br />

pleasing” (Alberti), words that applied<br />

equally to the superb torta I had just<br />

eaten as they did to Alberti’s vision <strong>of</strong><br />

architectural perfection.<br />

But ‘take away’ he did; at least my<br />

empty plate, returning soon after with<br />

the balsamic vinegar ice-cream and<br />

an expresso. As the last spoonful<br />

<strong>of</strong> ice-cream melted in my mouth I<br />

remembered that it was in Sicily that<br />

ice-cream had been invented - the<br />

Arab influence again. Bodkin was right,<br />

I thought, when he wrote towards the<br />

beginning <strong>of</strong> the third volume that<br />

“transmission across several cultures,<br />

whether happily or unhappily, was<br />

an integral part <strong>of</strong> the Rinascimento


figure F<br />

experience.” In the south there had been<br />

Arabic, Jewish, French, Aragonese, Greek<br />

and Catalan and in the north, an equally<br />

diverse admixture. Cross-cultural diversity<br />

was crucial to assembling an accurate portrait<br />

<strong>of</strong> Italy during the Rinascimento.<br />

But why had Bodkin felt it necessary to<br />

devote so much attention to the humanistic<br />

intellectual underpinnings <strong>of</strong> this period and<br />

its aesthetic philosophy (for that matter why<br />

have I) when his, my, our declared intentions<br />

have been to tell the story <strong>of</strong> <strong>Italian</strong> <strong>tiles</strong><br />

through the ages He never says - well not<br />

overtly - merely drops a hint here and there.<br />

I suspect part <strong>of</strong> the reason lay in the fact<br />

that he was a classics scholar, concerned<br />

with ‘first principles’, and also the time he<br />

was writing - about 1929. The war was still<br />

a vivid, painful memory and no intelligent<br />

person trying to understand why it had<br />

happened would attribute the reason to<br />

the assassination <strong>of</strong> Archduke Ferdinand in<br />

Sarajevo. The causes lay deeper and further<br />

back in time. Sometimes one has to step<br />

back to get a true picture.<br />

figure G<br />

In all fairness, there wasn’t a lot happening<br />

tilewise in Italy during the 13th and 14th<br />

centuries, but when it did get going, like<br />

the artisans and artists involved in all the<br />

other decorative arts, it did so imbued with<br />

the new spirit <strong>of</strong> the Rinascimento. It is<br />

worth remembering that Ghiberti trained<br />

and practised as a goldsmith and Pollaiuolo<br />

created small bronze figurines. Great artists<br />

also had to eat.<br />

The indisputable fact is that if we don’t<br />

understand the society and the ideas and<br />

forces that shaped it, we have little chance <strong>of</strong><br />

understanding and appreciating the decorative<br />

art which it produced. As Vasari says in the<br />

preface to Part II <strong>of</strong> the LIVES, “I have tried<br />

as well as I know how to help people who<br />

cannot find out for themselves to understand<br />

the sources and origins <strong>of</strong> various styles and<br />

the reasons for the improvement or decline<br />

<strong>of</strong> the arts at various times...”<br />

I paid my bill. Just as I had been one <strong>of</strong> the<br />

first to arrive I was now one <strong>of</strong> the last to<br />

leave. Giovanni and Steve accompanied me<br />

to the door. I thanked them warmly for the<br />

exquisite meal and we said our goodbyes.<br />

As the door closed I heard a last “Ciao” from<br />

Gio, and for a fleeting moment I was back in<br />

Forli with Patrizia, standing outside Signora<br />

Poletta’s house.<br />

FIGURE E.<br />

A broad-rimmed bowl painted by<br />

Nicola Pellipario <strong>of</strong> Urbino c. 1520,<br />

in the ‘Istoriato’ or narrative<br />

style. Ceramics were <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

decorated with copies from the<br />

works <strong>of</strong> major artists <strong>of</strong> the<br />

period, such as Mantegna and<br />

Raphael. Note the treatment <strong>of</strong><br />

the pavement and architecture<br />

to create the illusion <strong>of</strong> three<br />

dimensionality.<br />

figure F.<br />

Luca Della Robbia’s glazed terracotta plaques decorated the<br />

façade <strong>of</strong> the Ospedale Degli Innocenti by Brunelleschi - the<br />

earliest Rinascimento building.<br />

figure G. The mediaeval pavement <strong>of</strong> the Baptistery <strong>of</strong> St. John in Florence.<br />

Many <strong>of</strong> the patterns evoke the Islamic world - Oriental zodiac<br />

motifs are clearly evident in some <strong>of</strong> the ‘carpets’.<br />

Bibliography<br />

Blunt, A. Artistic Theory in Italy 1450-1600, OUP, London<br />

Murray, P.& L. The Art <strong>of</strong> the Renaissance, T&H, London, 1963<br />

Origo, I. The Merchant <strong>of</strong> Prato, Penguin, London 1986<br />

Levey, M. Early Renaissance, Penguin, London, 1967<br />

Procacci, G. History <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Italian</strong> People, Penguin, London<br />

Vasari, G. Lives <strong>of</strong> the Artists, Penguin, London, 1965 (Translation - George Bull)<br />

Welch, E. Art & Society in Italy 1350-1500, OUP, London 1997<br />

Van Lemmen, H. Tiles in Architecture, Lawrence King, London, 1993<br />

Hale, J. The Civilisation <strong>of</strong> Europe in the Renaissance, Harper Collins, London, 1993<br />

Farnetti, M. Technical Historical Glossary <strong>of</strong> Mosaic Art, Longo Editore Ravenna<br />

Partridge, L. The Renaissance in Rome, 1400-1600, Everman, London, 1996.

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