es are large dishes and
plateaux, thickly made and with the enamel on the upper face only, the
back having a lead glaze. They are often decorated (see fig. 46) with a
single figure or bust in the centre (with or without an inscribed
ribbon), which is usually set against a dark blue background which
covers only half the field, while in the other half is a formal flower,
and in the borders are radiating panels with palmettes alternating with
scale pattern, or some other formal design. The whole style is archaic,
the designs being heavily outlined in blue and washed over with a
greenish yellow lustre, with beautiful opalescent _reflets_ recalling
mother of pearl. The lustre varies from this _madreperla_ tint to a
brassy metallic yellow, and parts of the ornament are sometimes modelled
in low relief. In spite of its archaic appearance, the Deruta lustred
wares are scarcely older than the 16th century, and the style was
continued as late as the second half of that century. Deruta pottery was
not always lustred, and some of the pieces signed by the painter El
Frate, who flourished between 1541 and 1554, are without the lustre
pigment, though showing the heavy blue outlines of the lustred wares.
The lustred majolica of Gubbio owes its celebrity almost entirely to the
work of one man, Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, who came thither from Pavia,
with his brothers Salimbene and Giovanni, and obtained citizenship in
1498. His earliest efforts were in the direction of sculpture, and some
of his reliefs in the style of della Robbia are still in existence;
indeed the earliest dated piece of lustred majolica attributed to him is
a plaque of 1501, with the figure of St Sebastian in relief, in the
Victoria and Albert Museum. It is not known whence he learnt the secret
of the beautiful transparent ruby lustre peculiar to Gubbio. A red or
rosy lustre is found in both Persian and Hispano-Moresque wares, and no
doubt the process was learnt from some Moslem potter and developed by
Giorgio to unusual perfection. Golden, yellow, brown and opalescent
lustres were also freely used at Gubbio, the ruby being only sparingly
applied. Finished painted pieces were sent from other factories to
receive the addition of lustre at Gubbio, but these can almost always be
distinguished from the true Gubbio wares, in which the lustre is an
integral part of the decoration. Apart from the lustred enrichment, the
majolica of Gubbio has few distinctive qualities, for its