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Historical background
The history of Ferrara’s sgraffito ceramics traces its origins to early medieval artefacts from China and the vast areas of the Iranian Plateau, which arrived on Italian soil through maritime trade and commerce with the Orient.
The first works excavated by medieval archaeologists in Ferrara are dated no earlier than the thirteenth century and were a prelude to a highly important development during the fourteenth century, which achieved the highest standards of ornamentation and perfection in around 1440-1520.
During the initial or “archaic” stage of sgraffito pottery, the factories in the areas along the extensive Po valley produced artefacts with fairly uniform shapes and decoration. The clay of the Po valley lent itself particularly to the use of basic metal oxides - copper, iron and lead - for the paints that characterised this type of pottery.
The ornamental narratives are fairly standardised and mainly geometric and floral in nature; human figures appear much less frequently, although there also profiles of birds and pictures of imaginary animals borrowed from the bestiary of the time.
As a result of this production, whose influence spread even beyond the regions of northern Italy, Ferrara came to play a leading role and attain true primacy already from the first half of the fifteenth century, during the marquisate of Leonello d’Este.
The primordial spark was an extraordinary event for Este history and art: the Ecumenical Council of 1438. A session was held in Ferrara during that year, bringing to the city Pope Eugenius IV, the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, a multitude of great scholars and humanists and the extraordinary artist Antonio Pisano, known as Pisanello.
His work as a painter, medallist, and skilled draughtsman of animals, costumes and hairstyles, directly inspired the leading sgraffito ceramic shops of that period. Starting from those years, the most opulent tables of Ferrara began to be adorned with magnificent centrepiece bowls, large platters and side plates with edifying scenes, fine crockery decorated inside and out, inkwells featuring allegorical themes with coats of arms and, a little later, the recurring figure of St. George on horseback slaying the dragon in various different guises.
Italian Handcrafts:
The Engraved Pottery of Ferrara