It has already been stated that a red colour
is peculiar to Faenza and in an inferior and browner tint to Cafaggiolo;
it was used, according to Piccolpasso, at the factory of Vergiliotto in
the former place. At Cafaggiolo, the factory of the Medici family, many
fine pieces were painted, mostly in the Faventine style; a deep blue,
heavily applied and showing the marks of the brush, was freely used in
backgrounds, and delicate running leaf scrolls in paler blue and
reminiscent of Persian style often appear on the Cafaggiolo wares (see
example, Plate VI). Not a little can be learnt from the ornament on the
reverse sides of the dishes and plates; those of Faenza and Siena are
richly decorated with scale patterns and concentric bands; those of
Cafaggiolo and Venice are either left blank or have one or two rings of
yellow. A few pre-eminently beautiful dishes, with central figure
subjects of miniature-like finish in delicate landscapes with poplar
trees in a peculiar mannered style, are probably the work of M.
Benedetto of Siena. Borders of arabesques with black or deep orange
ground belong to the same factory and were perhaps decorated by the same
hand. The dishes covered, except for a few small medallions, with
interlaced oak branches ("_a cerquate_" decoration), are no doubt the
productions of Castel Durante; and a certain class of large dishes with
figure subjects in blue on a toned blue glaze, and sometimes with formal
ornaments in relief, are of undisputed Venetian origin.

[Illustration: Later Cafaggiolo Potter's mark.]

Another phase of majolica decoration began about the middle of the 16th
century and synchronized with the decline of the pictorial style. The
figure subjects were relegated to central panels or entirely replaced by
small medallions, and the rest of the surface covered with fantastic
figures among floral scrolls, inspired by Raphael's grotesques painted
on the walls of the Loggie in the Vatican. The prevailing tone of this
ornament was yellow or orange, and the tin-enamel ground, which is
always more or less impure in colour on Italian pottery, was washed over
with a pure milk-white, known as _bianco di Ferrara_ or _bianco
allatato_, said to have been invented by Alphonso I., duke of Ferrara,
who took an active interest in his private factory founded at Ferrara,
and managed by potters from Faenza and Urbino.

The new style flourished at Urbino, Pesaro and Ferrara; at the
first-named particularly in t