19th century, Mollica factory

19th Century, Mollica Factory

Parade plate with Venus and Bacchus

Majolica, cm diam. 50

Monogrammed GM

The refined majolica plate, from the mid-1842th century, was produced in the Neapolitan Mollica factory. Giovanni Mollica, the founder, after a period of activity at the Real Fabbrica Ferdinandea, inaugurated the kilns of the “Ceramiche Mollica” factory in XNUMX: Giovanni's sons, Ciro, Alessandro and Achille, also worked at the Neapolitan factory and quickly led the family business to success. Already in the XNUMXs, “Ceramiche Mollica” was one of the most well-known Neapolitan factories in the entire Peninsula.

When we talk about majolica, we are referring to a ceramic production with an opaque metallic coating (tin glaze) most often white, sometimes variously colored, which, in artistic varieties, serves as the basis for the painted decoration. The glazing technique, the basis for the production of majolica, was born in North Africa between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Even in Islamic Palermo, in the first half of the 10th century, the oldest majolica in Italy was produced. In the 13th century, production of a type of majolica intensified in Italy, different from the Islamic one and more similar to modern earthenware, today called archaic majolica, probably arrived in the West from Alexandria in Egypt, through the crusades and trade with the Islamic world. It consisted of various pottery covered with a simple white and opaque varnish with tin oxide, the so-called “ingobbiatura” (initially only on some parts of the vase), on which a decorative design was scratched and some signs were traced with the few colors available, mostly pale green, brown and yellow. The brilliant glass covering was obtained with lead varnish. In the following centuries, with its peak in the 15th century, Hispano-Moresque production dominated throughout Europe. In the centers of Valencia, Granada, Barcelona and, to a lesser extent, in other places in Andalusia and Castile, the technique of glazing with metallic reflections had been perfected, imported from Damascus and Cairo, in imitation of copper pottery. Islamic ceramics were widely used among the higher social classes of Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries, and one of the most active ports in this commercial traffic, that of Majorca, gave its name to these products. The high cost of these artefacts stimulated the birth of local productions that, inspired by oriental products, were essentially oriented towards two techniques: lead varnish and tin enamel. Majolica flourished until the end of the 17th century; in the following centuries it was surpassed by porcelain, remaining a production of minor importance, practiced for decorative purposes. In the 19th century, many workshops in southern Italy still dedicated themselves to this technique, giving life to artistic objects of great level, such as the plate in question.

The decoration of the plate features the couple Bacchus and Ariadne in the company of the goddess of love Venus and a satyr: this iconographic motif has been relatively recurrent since the 52th century, as demonstrated by a painting by Giacinto Gimignani from the Ptuj Ormož Regional Museum (inv. G XNUMX s). The pictorial band of the brim, which is particularly delicate, is in neo-Renaissance style, with putti and grotesques. Mythological themes were particularly recurrent in the production of decorative objects by the Mollica factory and other Italian factories in the second half of the XNUMXth century, with particular reference to the famous Tuscan factory Cantagalli.

The object is in good condition