ecorated with bold scrolls of formal oak leaves enclosing spirited
figures of men or animals, or heraldic devices. These are characterized
by a rich blue colour generally piled up in palpable relief and
sometimes verging on black; the outlines are usually in manganese, and
transparent green is used for details and occasionally even as a ground
colour. This ware has been definitely assigned to Florence on what seem
very inadequate grounds, and it is better to speak of it simply as
Tuscan. Then, essentially Italian ornament began to assert itself, and
it redounds to the credit of the Italian majolist that he soon freed
himself from repeating the styles of the wares from which he obtained
his methods, and produced a distinctive type of ornament of his own. He
revelled in patterns with bold floral scrolls, or those based on
peacocks' feathers (see fig. 45), and then he advanced to concentric
bands of painted ornament, borrowed from classic art yet breathing the
true spirit of the Renaissance; while cable borders, chequer and scale
patterns, bands of stiff radiating leaves, festoons of fruit and
flowers, zigzags and pyramidal scrolls occupied nearly the whole surface
or framed an armorial or emblematic central subject. Figure-subjects
occur with increasing frequency as the century advanced; Madonnas and
other sacred subjects, portraits, and, occasionally, groups of figures
after the early Italian masters, or scenes borrowed from the first
illustrated editions of the classics, gradually encroach on the
conventional borders and occupy more and more of the surface of the
piece. The provenance of these 15th-century pieces still remains
uncertain--Faenza, Forli, Florence, Siena and other places offering
rival claims,--but there is no doubt that from the earliest times Faenza
was the most fertile centre of their manufacture, and almost all the
motives of the _quattrocento_ wares are found on fragments discovered
there or on examples that can be traced to Faventine factories.

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--Early Faenza plate, with peacock-feather
design, in blues, yellow and orange-red. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)]

[Illustration: Early Faenza Potter's mark.

Late Faenza Potter's mark.]

It is customary to treat the enamelled terra-cottas of Luca della
Robbia, the great Florentine sculptor (1399-1482), and his followers,
Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia and other members of the family, as
belonging rather to the domain of sculpture