[Illustration: Fig. 213--Pesaro Vase. (John Taylor Johnston Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]
The earliest Pesarese works very closely resemble the Persian, and are the best indications to be found of the presence of an art brought directly from Iran to Italy. These are lustred and painted in green and blue. At Pesaro we first meet with pieces showing the portraits and love mottoes by which the lovers of the day celebrated the beauty of their mistresses and gave lasting tokens of their passion. If we seek peculiar features in this majolica, we shall find them in the strong execution and finely blended tints of the early pieces, and in the yellow of the _madreperla_ lustre combined with blue. As the art rose under the second Guidobaldo, historical scenes after the great masters present themselves, taken from both profane and sacred history--the brave Horatius defending the bridge at Rome against the army of Lars Porsenna, Samson, Brennus, Mutius Scævola, Judith, and other characters. In 1567 the Giacomo Lanfranco already mentioned applied real gold to majolica, and several of his pieces thus decorated are still in existence.
Castel-Durante appears to have produced faience as early as 1361, but none of its pottery can be recognized until we come down to 1508, after which the specimens multiply. With the year 1580 the art passed its meridian, and declined steadily for nearly two hundred years. The characteristic decoration consists of scrolls with fantastic chimerical terminations. The colors are at first a dull green upon blue, and about 1550 lustrous rich yellows appear, and led to the decline thirty years later.
[Illustration: Fig. 214.--Castel-Durante Portrait Plaque. (South Kensington Museum.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 215.--Castel-Durante Dish. (Castellani Coll.)]
The city of Urbino was the great centre at once of majolica painting and of the ducal patronage, which gave the entire duchy its pre-eminence. From 1477, when Garducci was working in a comparatively humble way, down to 1530, the history of Urbino hardly demands notice. Its highest glory came with Francesco Xanto (Fig. 216), whose broad and generally true drawing and masterly composition mark him as one of the great artists of the Renaissance. His subjects are taken from the Latin classical and the later Italian poets, and from Raffaelle. Living at the time when the demand for metallic lustre was at its height, he applies it with a boldness and effectiveness in harmony with his brilliant coloring. All his works are signed. From him we turn to the equally illustrious Fontana family--Guido, Camillo, and Orazio, the latter of whom is specially deserving of study. He attained to a higher mechanical excellence than any of his predecessors, his best works dating from after 1540, when Xanto's career was closing; and his paintings are in consequence characterized by a softness of color and a fineness of glaze which leave him without a peer. Few pieces by the Fontana family are signed. Their most famous works are the vases for the Spezieria, ordered by the Duke Guidobaldo II., and painted from designs by Raffaelle Battista Franco, Michael Angelo, Giulio Romano, and others. Nicola da Urbino and Francesco Durantino are among the other artists who contributed to the fame of Urbino.