A history of Italian tiles - Infotile
A history of Italian tiles - Infotile
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.