Notes- Maiolica specifically refers to tin-glazed earthenware dating from the
Renaissance; majolica is an application of the original term to the color
ful Renaissance-inspired wares of the nineteenth century championed
by the Minton factory in England. - Caiger-Smith 1985, 127. Gaetano Ballardini (1922b, 60) reminds us,
however, that by the mid-thirteenth century obra de mdlequa (alternate
spellings include melica, melicha, maliqua, and malica), although cer
tainly referring to a place (Malaga), became a generic term for the pro
cess (luster) much as the French term faience (from Faenza) was later
applied to tin-glazed earthenware in general. - See, for example, Lightbown and Caiger-Smith 1980, 1: fols.
46V, 47r, sor. - Caiger-Smith 1973, 54 n. 3. Because these tin glazes could produce a
particularly white surface, they were crucial to the development and ap
peal of lusterware. Fired on the more common lead-based glazes, luster
appears dull, whereas it becomes fully brilliant when set off against a
stabler and purer white ground. - See Ragona 1999, 24-33; Ragona in Cilia Platamone and Ragona 1995,
34-38, figs. 34-49,- Berti and Tongiorgi 1981. - Caiger-Smith 1973, 101.
- Valeri 1986, 281.
- See Biringuccio 15 40; Agricola 1556.
- Lightbown and Caiger-Smith 1980, 1: fol. 64V.
- Lightbown and Caiger-Smith 1980, 1: prologue.
- Although once thought to depict oak leaves, the precise identification of
this foliate ornament has not been settled (Wallis 1903). - For more information on this decoration, see Conti et al. 1991.
- So called after the decoration in the ancient Roman ruins that had been
buried and so were called grottoes, grotesque embellishment is charac
terized by fantastic and highly decorative combinations of animals and
humans (for two different approaches to grotesque embellishment on
maiolica, see nos. 33 and 35). - Cora 1973, 1: io8ff.
- The Italian word for such a table service as well as for the sideboard on
which it would have been displayed, signified the owner's monetary
worth, or "credit," hence credenza. - Mallet 1998, 35; Crepin-Leblond 1995, no. 31.
- Spallanzani 1994, 129 n. 19; Palvarini 1987, 211 n. 2 (cited in
Mallet 1998, 35). - Bellini and Conti 1964, 27.
- Conti 1976, 219. Conti believes that these Eastern jars were originally
made from sections of bamboo; this may help explain the origin of the
ceramic albarello shape. - From the Italian crespa, meaning wrinkle or ripple.
- Montaigne [1774] 195 5, 21 5.
- Goldthwaite 1987, 153-75. For other enlightening publications by
this scholar relevant to maiolica studies, see "The Florentine Palace
as Domestic Architecture," American Historial Review 77 (1972):
977-1012; "The Economic and Social World of Italian Renais
sance Maiolica," Renaissance Quarterly 42 (1989): 1-32; The Build
ing of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History
(Baltimore, 1982); Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy, 1300-
1600 (Baltimore, 1993). - As cited in Goldthwaite 1987, 172.
- Rasmussen 1984, 212-13, no. 142; Rasmussen 1989, 156-58, no. 91.
- Lane 1954, vii.
- See, for example, Hughes 1995, no. 3o; Hughes et al. 1995, 77-81;
Hughes and Gaimster 1999, 57-89. - Wilson 1999, 8.
- In addition to neutron activation analysis (NAA), other analytical meth
ods are now (or soon will be) available to provenance clays. These in
clude electron microprobe analysis, proton induced X-ray emission
(PIXE), proton induced gamma emission (PIGE), inductively coupled
plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and laser ablation-icp (inductively
coupled plasma), all of which have their own advantages and drawbacks.
Only a database of NAA information exists at present. To continue these
promising archeometry studies, it will be critical to compile an exten
sive database for whichever method is ultimately determined to be the
best, i.e., the most accurate, the least damaging, the most cost effective.
OVERLEAF: Plate with the Abduction of Helen (detail). See no. 29.Introduction I ~f