styles were
various and almost all borrowed (see fig 47). The archaic taste of
Deruta, the arabesques and grotesques of Faenza and Castel Durante, and
in a lesser degree the "_istoriato_" style of Urbino, reigned in turn.
Perhaps the most characteristic paintings of Maestro Giorgio are the
central medallions of cups and deep dishes enclosing a single figure of
a child or a cupid in _grisaille_. Giorgio's larger figure compositions,
if indeed his signature in lustre may be taken to imply that he painted
the designs as well as lustred them, show great inequality, some rising
to a very high standard--as the dish with "the Three Graces" in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, and the "Bath of Nymphs" in the Wallace
collection--while in others the figure drawing is quite inferior. The
arabesques and grotesques on the Gubbio wares are usually of great
merit. There are a few known pieces of unlustred Gubbio wares with
figure subjects, painted chiefly in blue and in the style of the early
Faventine artists. After 1517, when we may assume that the lustre
process was thoroughly mastered, the Gubbio wares were usually signed
with the initials or full name of Maestro Giorgio, and a few rapidly
executed scrolls in lustre completed the decorations of the reverse of
the plates and dishes. The master's latest signed work is dated 1541,
and he died in 1552. It is probable that his brother Salimbene assisted
him, and Piccolpasso names his son Vincentio as possessor of the lustre
secret. Possibly the latter was the painter who signed his wares with
the initial N, but this conjecture rests solely on the ingenious, but
unsupported notion that N is a monogram of the first three letters of
the name Vincentio. Other initials, M, D, R, also occur on Gubbio
plates, and the latest dated example of the ware is signed by one
"Mastro Prestino" in 1557, but it has little to recommend it save that
it is enriched with the Gubbio lustres, which after this time entirely
disappear.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--Gubbio plate, with portrait in ruby lustre and
blue outline. (Victoria and Albert Museum.)]

[Illustration: Gubbio Potters' marks.]

The old majolica shapes are briefly as follows:--among the earliest
are small bowls (_scodette_), often with flattened sides; jugs
(_boccali_) with large lip-spouts, and mouths pinched into trefoil
form; large dishes with gradually shelving sides (_bacili_), or with
flat broad rims and deep centres; akin to these