Studio: international art (47.1909)

FIG. l6. -DRUG POT, GOLDEN
LUSTRE AND DARK BLUE
(EARLY XV. CENT.)

the rivets and joints of metal vessels. A slight
amount of modelling, indeed, such as occurs in
the embossed leafage of Fig. 23 is legitimate and
effective; but the pronounced ribs of Fig. 8 are
objectionable for two reasons; firstly, because, as
explained above, they suggest a constructive feature
false and foreign to the material, and secondly,
because by breaking up the surface of the plate into
a series of limited compartments they lend' them-
selves only too readily to a cramped and enervated
littleness which necessarily precludes the free and
untrammelled exercise of the decorator’s art. And
yet, since the applied painting to the' last never

FIG. l8.—RED LUSTRE DISH, 9 IN. DIAMETER
(VALENCIA, XV. — XVI. CENT.)

Hi span o-Moresq ue Lustre IVa re

It is an infallible symptom of decadence, and
jaded resource when the craftsman, ill-content
with the limitations proper to his craft, seeks to
supplement them by adventitious devices borrowed
from extraneous arts and processes. Thus, in the
earlier and purer products of the Hispano-Moresque
potter’s art no such extravagances are found as
the lumps and ribs which encrust the surface
of many examples of sixteenth-century work,
features inspired by the craving to imitate in clay

FIG. 17.—EWER, RED COPPER LUSTRE (XVI. CENT.)

degenerated into realism, lustre ware remains
unrivalled for its aesthetic qualities among any
other kinds of pottery in the world.

Aymer Vallance.

The writer desires to acknowledge his indebted-
ness to the works of Senor Juan Riano, Mr.
Leonard Williams, and Mr. A. van de Put. For
permission to reproduce Figs, i, 3, 4, 6, 12, 15,
18 and 21, acknowledgment is. due to the autho-
rities of the Victoria and Albert Museum ; and for
all the other objects illustrated to the proprietors
of the Spanish Art Gallery in Conduit Street.