DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7186#0018
4
Introduction.
fane, attest. Then were produced very fine and beautiful ornaments in terra-
cotta, even at a cost not exceeding the resources of private persons; then was
attained that seemly comeliness and that elegant exterior which are so powerful
to diffuse good taste among the people. In that golden age of the art a wise
sobriety was observed in the use of such ornaments, and a scrupulous care to
apply them only where the style permitted them. From the most celebrated
architects who flourished along with Luca della Robbia, that pre-eminent
modeller in terra-cotta, down to the period of the Renaissance, ceramic ornament
invariably entered into designs for buildings.
It was then in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that the art of terra-cotta
most flourished; but when it passed into the hands of the so-called imitators of
Michael Angelo, art overpassing the boundary line of beauty, lapsed into exagge-
ration, then the modest, severe, and delicate ornament in terra-cotta, refusing
to lend itself to the contortions and scroll-work of the ' Barocco' style, fell
suddenly into oblivion, and there remained until our own times.
To this rapid sketch of the history of terra-cottas we subjoin a word as to
the best methods of producing them employed in Italy, which in that country
have regained for this branch of industry its due importance.
Only a few years ago the art was revived in Milan by the sculptor Andrea
Boni ; and the Royal Lombardic Institute first gave him the encouragement
of a silver medal, and afterwards rewarded him with one of gold.
To convey an adequate and detailed idea of the best method employed in
Italy for building in terra-cotta, of the modes of drying the modelled objects,
of their baking, and of other improvements, it will suffice to explain the system
now carried out by Boni in his extensive and busy manufactory in Milan, a
system of which the results were highly praised at the Great Exhibition in
South Kensington Museum.1
He manufactures two sorts of ware; one calculated to resist atmospheric
1 We derive these particulars from the reports of the distribuzioni dei premj d' industria fatte in Milano ed in
Commission of the Royal Lombardic Institute of Sciences, Venezia dal 1853 al 1857, vol. viii. Milano, 1857), and
Letters, and Arts (Collezione degli Atti delle solenni from an account by Professor Magrini.
Introduction.
fane, attest. Then were produced very fine and beautiful ornaments in terra-
cotta, even at a cost not exceeding the resources of private persons; then was
attained that seemly comeliness and that elegant exterior which are so powerful
to diffuse good taste among the people. In that golden age of the art a wise
sobriety was observed in the use of such ornaments, and a scrupulous care to
apply them only where the style permitted them. From the most celebrated
architects who flourished along with Luca della Robbia, that pre-eminent
modeller in terra-cotta, down to the period of the Renaissance, ceramic ornament
invariably entered into designs for buildings.
It was then in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that the art of terra-cotta
most flourished; but when it passed into the hands of the so-called imitators of
Michael Angelo, art overpassing the boundary line of beauty, lapsed into exagge-
ration, then the modest, severe, and delicate ornament in terra-cotta, refusing
to lend itself to the contortions and scroll-work of the ' Barocco' style, fell
suddenly into oblivion, and there remained until our own times.
To this rapid sketch of the history of terra-cottas we subjoin a word as to
the best methods of producing them employed in Italy, which in that country
have regained for this branch of industry its due importance.
Only a few years ago the art was revived in Milan by the sculptor Andrea
Boni ; and the Royal Lombardic Institute first gave him the encouragement
of a silver medal, and afterwards rewarded him with one of gold.
To convey an adequate and detailed idea of the best method employed in
Italy for building in terra-cotta, of the modes of drying the modelled objects,
of their baking, and of other improvements, it will suffice to explain the system
now carried out by Boni in his extensive and busy manufactory in Milan, a
system of which the results were highly praised at the Great Exhibition in
South Kensington Museum.1
He manufactures two sorts of ware; one calculated to resist atmospheric
1 We derive these particulars from the reports of the distribuzioni dei premj d' industria fatte in Milano ed in
Commission of the Royal Lombardic Institute of Sciences, Venezia dal 1853 al 1857, vol. viii. Milano, 1857), and
Letters, and Arts (Collezione degli Atti delle solenni from an account by Professor Magrini.