The evolution of the term Maiolica is almost as interesting as the development and spread of the style itself.
There are four different meanings associated with the term.

• In origin the word is a medieval Italian form of the name of the island of Majorca.

• Renaissance Italians used the term to describe Hispano-Moresque imports and other luster wares, which were sometimes shipped through Majorca to Italy.

• In modern Italian (and some parts of Italy in the 16^th century) its meaning has broadened to ‘tin glazed earthenware’.

• In English, it is used to refer to tin glazed earthenware in the stylistic tradition of the Italian Renaissance.

Note: ‘Maiolica’ may be spelt ‘Majolica’. Both terms are used in modern references and considered equally valid and inter-changeable.

The principal colors of Maiolica are: blue (cobalt), green (copper), purple and brown (manganese), yellow (antimony), orange (antimony and iron) and white (tin).

Tin glazed items were not invented by the Italians, in fact the beauty of eastern ceramics had been well known to the Renaissance Italians for a long time.
The first examples of this technique were found in Baghdad and dated to the 9^th Century - there symmetrical patterns were painted in blue and white.
However by the by the end of the 11^th century Islamic pottery, including lusterware, had been in widespread use for the embellishment of religious and civic buildings. Thought to have been introduced by the crusaders at the as trophies demonstrating victories over the pagans by powerful Christian forces.

During the 13^th through to the early 15^th century Tuscany had good trade relations with Moorish Spain and imported large quantities of lusterware from Spain. This is when the Italians began to work with tin glazed ware. It is interesting to note that the only difference between the Italian and Spanish products of this period is the absence of luster on the Italian wares.

The map below shows the sweeping migration of tin glazed tradition from Baghdad, then with the advance of Islam, it was carries the length of the Northern African seaboard into Moorish Spain, this occurred during the 10^th Century. Then during the 13^th Century through to the 15^th Century, Spanish pottery was transported through Majorca to Italy.

The Italians took great pains to copy the styles of the Spanish and Islamic designs but remained ignorant to the production of luster tones which were found on these tin glazed ceramics. In place of the luster, the Italians imitated the effect by using orange-yellow color through fine manganese.

Italian Maiolica eventually dominated the pottery of Europe and set a trend that lasted more than three hundred years.

The most common surviving pieces from the earliest period of majolica are storage vessels made for monastic pharmacies, usually labeled to indicate their contents and decorated with contemporary Hispano-Moresque motifs or the symbols of saints credited with healing powers. Because of Islamic prohibitions against it, the human form was rarely depicted on majolica pottery prior to 1450 but became characteristic of its design by the beginning of the 16th century. The majolica of Deruta is noted for its stylized portrait heads and figures and seems to have been the first Italian ware to adopt (c.1500) the Valencian technique of of using luster glazes to produce metallic and iridescent effects. From Deruta the technique was probably brought to Gubbio, where a ruby-red luster color was evolved. Relief-molded wares, designed to enhance the brilliance of the iridescence, were produced at both towns.

In the late 15th century majolica became more decorative and less functional. Dishes and vases were designed primarily for display, especially the pictorial narrative styles associated with Urbino. Subjects for illustration were taken from Roman history, Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, and occasionally from contemporary literature. Imagery was often derived from engravings or from woodcut book illustrations.

Sixteenth-century majolica decoration evolved away from pictorialism and was frequently derived from engravings of ornamental motifs, published for the use of decorative designers. These motifs, following the prevalent enthusiasm for Greek and Roman antiquities, conjured up a pagan world populated by cupids, satyrs, sphinxes, and other mythical beings. Acanthus foliage, palmettes, and the Roman "trophy" of arms were common motifs. From the East, by way of Venice and Islamic metalworkers there, came the arabesque style, a continuous interlacing of formalized leaves and branches. At Urbino a sophisticated style evolved that consisted of a bizarre medley of winged monsters, grotesque semi human creatures, urns, and masks, linked by swags and garlands. These delicately painted, whimsical grotesque elements were set off by a technically perfect white glaze. The Urbino factories also produced small statues, whose forms were inspired by contemporary work in bronze. The ultimate reaction against the overworked polychrome narrative style was the plain white ware of Faenza, the thick glaze appreciated for its own sake. The dispersal of majolica craftsmen, particularly from Faenza, exerted a profound influence on European pottery styles and, in particular, of the Netherlands, where, in the early 17th century, the tin-glaze technique was taken up and used to imitate Chinese porcelain.
Betty Elzea Bibliography: Pica, Agnoldomenico, Italian Majolica Tile, trans. by James Pallas (1971); Rackham, Bernard, Italian Maiolica (1952); Schneider, Mike, Majolica (1989).

An especially popular type of decoration involved the sgraffito, or "scratched," technique used by Italian potters before the 15th century.

By the 16th century Italian potters working mainly in Padua and Bologna had developed great skill in sgraffito, which entailed the incising of designs on red or buff earthenware that had been coated with ordinary transparent lead glaze, usually toned yellow or, sometimes, brown, copper, or green.
Just like today, after firing, the wares were dipped into white clay slip so that a dark pattern could be cut on the surface. By cutting through the white slip, the artist produced a design on the exposed red or buff body. Pigments were also sometimes applied. After a further coating of lead glaze the ware was fired a second time.

A sound knowledge of glazes--both utilitarian and decorative-- is vital to the potter. The origin of glazes and glazing techniques is unknown, but the fine lustrous glazes developed in China surely began with a simple glaze that served to cover earthenware and render it watertight. Potters in Mesopotamia and Iran commonly used an alkaline glaze made of quartz mixed with sodium and potassium. An admixture of colored metallic oxides, mostly lead, was introduced later.

Painting on pottery and porcelain became richly colorful in many regions and periods.

For a long period ceramic artists had used only black or brown pigment to decorate wares that were then covered with clear glaze. It is believed that the appearance in China of 13th-century brush-decorated wares from Persia sparked a change. These works, painted in blue cobalt under the glaze, inspired the brushwork of the Chinese, and the resulting so-called blue-and-white style prevailed for a long time.

In the Islamic world, ceramic decorative art flowered with the creation of a great diversity of painted wares. Painted luster decoration on pottery originated in Mesopotamia and spread to ancient Egypt; later, under Islam in Persia, this type of decoration on white-glazed wares became incredibly brilliant. Islamic luster-painted wares were later masterfully developed by Italian potters during the Renaissance.