(Madrid).

LITERATURE.--A. Van de Put, _Hispano-Moresque Ware of the 15th
Century_ (1904); F. Sarre, "Die spanisch-maurischen Lusterfayencen des
Mittelalters," &c. (in _Jahrbuch der kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen_,
xxiv. (1903); G.J. de Osma, "Apuntes sobre ceramica morisca: textos y
documentos valencianos," No. 1, 1906, and "Los Letreros ornamentales
en la ceramica morisca del siglo xv." (in the review _Cultura
Espanola_, No. ii, 1906; J. Font y Guma, _Rajolas valencianas y
catalanas_ (1905); J. Tramoyeres Blasco, "Ceramica valenciana del
siglo xvii." (in the _Almanaque, para 1908, del periodico Las
Provincias de Valencia_; J. Gestoso y Perez, Historia de los barros
vidriados sevillanos (1904); also J.C. Davillier, _Histoire des
faiences hispano-moresques a reflets metalliques_ (1861).
(A. v. de P.)

MEDIEVAL AND LATER ITALIAN POTTERY[14]

Little is known of the potter's art in Italy after the fall of the Roman
empire till the 13th century. The traditions of the Roman potters appear
to have been gradually lost, leaving behind only sufficient skill to
make rude crocks for domestic use and to coat them, if required, with a
crude yellowish lead glaze sometimes stained to a vivid green with
copper oxide. Applied ornament of roughly modelled clay and scratched
designs were the chief embellishments of such wares, which were of the
same class as the medieval pottery of Great Britain and the north of
Europe. In the 12th and 13th centuries, however, contact with Asia
Minor, Syria, Egypt and Spain, where ceramic skill had been highly
developed in fresh directions, as we have seen, introduced into Italy as
well as the rest of Europe those superior wares characterized by a white
surface decorated with bright colours under a brilliant transparent
glaze, and glorified by metallic lustres. The Italian potters did not
long remain unaffected by these influences, but though Persian, Syrian
and Egyptian pottery must have been fairly plentiful in the households
of the wealthy, it was the distinctively Hispano-Moresque wares from
which the potters of Italy drew the inspiration for a new ware of their
own. The technique of a siliceous slip-coating with colour painted on
that and covered with a transparent alkaline glaze, was only sparingly
used, and then not very successfully; it is only the introduction of the
tin-enamel that was turned to fruitful account and led to the production
of the magnificent Ital