What Is Maiolica Arcaica?
When we talk about Maiolica Arcaica, we are talking about one of the most distinctive forms of medieval Italian ceramics. But the name itself already tells us something about its history.
Why is it called “Maiolica Arcaica”?
The word maiolica is linked to the history of trade across the Mediterranean and is traditionally associated with Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands through which ceramics from the Islamic and Hispano-Moorish world reached Italy.
“Arcaica”, on the other hand, does not simply mean “very old”. The term was adopted by scholars to describe one of the early phases of Italian maiolica, drawing on a designation already used to distinguish the earliest phases of Greek pottery.
Maiolica Arcaica developed in central and northern Italy from the 13th century onwards, at a time when the techniques of tin-glazed ceramics were beginning to spread and develop in different parts of the Italian peninsula.
Maiolica from Upper Lazio
In the Upper Lazio area, this tradition developed in important centres of production, giving rise to a particularly rich range of forms and decorations.
There was no single, rigid repertoire of forms and decorations. Motifs circulated, were adopted and reinterpreted, changed from one workshop to another, and adapted to the tastes and culture of each area.
Geometric decorations, vegetal motifs, animals, fantastic creatures, religious symbols and heraldic elements appear on objects that were not made simply to be looked at.
Ceramics made to be used
Maiolica Arcaica was primarily tableware.
Bowls, basins, jugs, tankards and other vessels were part of everyday life. They were objects made for holding, serving, eating and drinking.
This aspect is important because it changes the way we can look at these objects today.
Behind a decorated surface there is, first and foremost, an object that had to function. The shape of a bowl had to be suitable for holding and using; a jug had to be able to contain and pour; a tankard had to be comfortable to hold.
The decoration was applied to a form that already had a function of its own.
And this is precisely where one of the most interesting aspects of Maiolica Arcaica begins.
Why copper green and manganese brown?
If there is one colour combination that we immediately associate with Maiolica Arcaica, it is copper green and manganese brown.
The light, opaque background is created with tin glaze, onto which the decorations are painted. The green comes from copper compounds, while the brown is produced by manganese.
These colours are the result of techniques and materials that ceramic makers knew and used. Copper and manganese were present in different areas of the Italian peninsula and were part of the mineral resources with which ceramic makers could come into contact.
The palette, however, was not always the same. Earlier productions also included other colours, including yellow obtained from iron. Over time, the contrast between the light background, green and brown became increasingly characteristic: a relatively simple palette, but an extremely recognisable one.
When decoration meets form
Decoration is not simply applied to a form: often, the form itself determines how the decoration is constructed.
A bowl is not a canvas. A plate is not a flat surface. A tankard has a curve, a rim, a narrowing, a handle.
The decorator has to work with all of this.
A motif may therefore stretch to follow a wall, curve, repeat along a band, stop at a rim or change in order to adapt to the available space.
Decoration and form ultimately become two parts of the same thing.
This becomes particularly clear when we look at geometric motifs. Braids, bands, grids, lines and interlacing patterns do not merely serve to decorate: they help organise the surface, divide it and give it rhythm.
But what happens when a figure has to fit into that space?
Empty space and fantastic figures
When looking at much medieval art, we get the impression that empty space was not simply a space to be left empty.
Surfaces, margins and decorative fields were often organised through figures, signs and ornaments. This tendency is often described by the expression horror vacui, “fear of empty space”.
In medieval art, the problem is very concrete: how do we organise the space we have available?
In ceramics, the problem becomes even more evident: the available surface is determined by the shape of the vessel. If a figure has to fit into it, it has to adapt to that shape.
And so a figure may stretch, curve, become smaller or larger, or fold back on itself.
It is also through this relationship between figure and space that we can better understand the presence of fantastic animals, hybrid creatures and grotesque figures in medieval art and ceramics. Not everything necessarily has to imitate faithfully what exists in the real world.
The figure also has to work within the space that contains it.
And this produces a surprisingly free world of images, in which animals, people, plants and fantastic creatures can be transformed and recombined.
A language made of signs
The medieval decorator does not necessarily tell stories through large, elaborate scenes. Their work is a language made of signs, figures and elements that can be recognised and understood in relation to one another.
The religious dimension is particularly important. Many images refer to the Bible, the life of Christ, the saints or Christian symbolism. A scene may be told through a single figure, or through a series of signs which become recognisable when brought together. A cross, a lamb or the Instruments of the Passion can be enough to evoke a much broader story than the one that physically occupies the surface of the vessel.
But meaning does not come only through explicit images. It can also be conveyed through repetition, arrangement, number, symmetry, or the position of one element in relation to the others. What may appear to us as a dense collection of signs can therefore be constructed according to a precise order.
And this is perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of medieval decoration: the lines may appear naïve, but the language is anything but.
Medieval images follow conventions that allow those who look at them to recognise and interpret them. Even when the drawing appears simple, the choice of a figure, its position, or the way it is combined with others is not necessarily accidental. The possibility that an image might refer to something beyond what it literally represents is an integral part of that visual culture.
Within what may appear to be a chaos of figures, interlacing patterns and ornaments, therefore, not everything is necessarily left to chance. The shape of the vessel, the available space, the rhythm of the decoration and the meaning of the images all contribute to creating a single system.
Our Maiolica Arcaica
This is also where we begin in our own work.
We do not simply seek to reproduce a medieval object, nor to transfer a ready-made repertoire of images onto a contemporary form. Studying Maiolica Arcaica means, above all, observing how form, sign and meaning can come together to create an object.
For us, decoration begins with its relationship to form: with its curves, the spaces it creates, and the way a drawing can follow them, stop, repeat itself or change.
It is a tradition that we do not consider something fixed, but rather a language that can be studied, interpreted and transformed anew.