l always remain a large number of specimens of majolica which
cannot be assigned with certainty to any particular factory, partly
because the same style of painting was in vogue at many places at the
same time, and partly because of the itinerant propensities of many of
the painters, whose signed works prove that they moved from place to
place to practise their art. There are, however, a few prominent artists
whose touch is sufficiently well known from the examples that bear their
signatures to enable us to classify a considerable proportion of the
finest pieces. First of these is Niccola Pellipario, the founder of the
Fontana family, who moved from Castel Durante to Urbino in 1519, and
worked at the latter place in the factory of his son, Guido Fontana.
There is little doubt that he was the painter of the famous service in
the Correr Museum at Venice, which marks the transition from the style
of Faenza to that of Urbino, and his free figure-drawing, the oval faces
with strongly marked classical features, the peculiarly drawn knees, the
careful landscapes and the characteristic balls of cloud are easily
recognized in quite a number of pieces in the British Museum (see the
Gonzago Este piece, Plate VI.). His pupil, who frequently signed his
name in full, Xanto Avelli da Rovigo, was one of the foremost Urbino
painters, and his work is characterized by bold colouring and fine
figure-drawing, with a marked fondness for yellowish flesh tints. But
Niccola's grandson, Orazio Fontana (see example, Plate VI.), was perhaps
the most celebrated exponent of the pure Urbino style, and his free
drawing and soft harmonious colouring, in which a brilliant blue is
usually conspicuous, are unequalled by any other majolica painter of the
period.

[Illustration: Venetian Majolica Potter's mark.]

Certain characteristic wares of Faenza have already been noted. Those
with the grey-blue (_berettino_) glaze were principally made at the
factory called Casa Pirota, though inferior imitations were also
produced at Padua, and a blue glaze of paler tint was largely used at
Venice. Dolphins are a frequent motive in the arabesque ornaments of the
same Faventine workshop, and many of the wares are marked with a circle
divided by a cross and containing a dot in one of the quarters. A
capital P crossed with a line or paraph is another Faventine mark, and a
somewhat similar monogram, with an S added to the upper part, is found
in the wares of Cafaggiolo.