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  • Sept. 17, 1864
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Sept. 17, 1864: Page 7

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    Article TERRA-COTTA AND LUCA DELLA ROBBIA WARE, CONSIDERED ON THE PRINCIPLES OE DECORATIVE ART. ← Page 4 of 5 →
Page 7

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Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Oe Decorative Art.

their lordships' suggestion , I shall seek from within the Museum itself such objects as more fittingly exemplify my observations ; and if the things themselves are not immediately before your eyes upon the table , it is because several of them are too largetoo preciousto ask for and have

unfas-, , tened from the Avails , Avhere I hope they may hang , in their present well-arranged order , to delight ancl instruct the world for ages yet to come . At the outset I ought to say that , to smgularise each and every valuable article belonging , in the museum , " to our subjectAvould be as tiring as useless . -

, When , therefore , I happen to select one specimen , it is not that all the others are less important in art , or under it in value , but only less apt , as I look upon them , to illustrate that particular point upon Avhich I Avant to throw , as best I may , some little light .

" Terra-cotta , as you may knoAV , is Italian , and signifies " cooked or baked earth , " and we Anglicise the expression as " burned clay . " Though , in strictness , applicable to all the appurtenances of household use—to everything , in fact , made out of that substance—the term is here employed in its

restricted sense , and must be understood as referring solely to such of its manipulations as bear about them a decorative plastic character . The so-called " Della Robbia Ware" is burned clay , presenting itself to us under the form of its very highest—most artistic development wherein ,

to all the beauties of statuary , it has given it the additional charm of colour heightened by bright glazing . Begin Ave UOAV Avith " burned clay , " looked at in its first simple shape , that is , as a decorative ornament , with no other than its OAVU natural self colour about it .

Among the materials employed by man in his earliest attempts at anything like decorative art , one—perhaps the very first—was burned clay ; and of the use of it as such , Ave shall find proofs in every country . Passing by the land of Sennaar , Avith it Babel toAver , and reaching the valley of the

of the Nile , sure may Ave be , from the many curious fragments gathered there , that Avhile the Hebrews were making their bricks , their Egyptian masters ' hands were busy in fashioning- more artistic works in clay . Like Egypt , Phoenicia , both at home ancl in all her settlements on the northern shores of

Africa and in Spain , displayed the skill of her people in the use of the same material . In Greece , not the earliest of its worthies only , but the mightiest of its many mighty masters—Phidias himself , in all the full bloom of his fame , thought it not beneath his own glory nor the sculptor ' s art ,

like them , to work in clay . Go where you will in Italy , and dig where once stood its oldest cities , and you will find specimens of decorative burned clay . That delightful writer on Italian art and artists , Vasari , tells ns in his introduction to the " Lives , " that at Chiusi , one of the ancient towns of old Etruria , tiles in burned clay have been dug

up from the earth there , on which Avere figures in low relief , so admirably executed and in so good a manner , that all mig ht perceive the arts to be far from their first attempts when these were formed ; nay , rather from the perfection of the Avork , it miht be fairlinferred that they to

g y were nearer their hig hest summit than to their origin . . Had good Master George been treated , like ourselves , Avith the sight of that long-lost but now unburied city of Pompeii , and walked its streets , he would have beheld the practical use to which those old Romans put works wrought in clayas he found

, the shopkeeper's sign of his trade done in that material over his door . Thus , the milkman shoAved a goat ; the wine-seller displayed two men carrying between them , slung upon a pole , a narrow , long , two-handled pitcher , then called an amphora , in which the custom AA as to store their wine ; nor

would the observant George overlook in the museum the painting that the schoolmaster hung out , shoAving the animated scene of the idler or truant horsed upon another ' s back , or boy plaintive , in more senses than one , against birch , coloured to the life and quite in accordance , as the Austrian

friars at St . Giminiano's thought , with tlie discipline folloAved hy the pedagogue of Madaura , for whipping Greek into the reluctant little Austin , afterwards so good , so great , so famous—done , too , in such a manner as would have joyed the heart of any rod-loving Dr . Busby .

That our forefathers the Britons , even in their earliest or Celtic period , long before the coming hither of the Romans , knew somewhat of the potter's art , we learn from the vases and the beads of clay , ornamented after a manner , found in their cistvaens" or cromlechs—so their

stonebuilt graves are called . By the way , however , and as a caution , it may be well to notice how great have been the mistakes , on this point , committed by persons who , though otherwise well educated , have learned little of art and less of archaeology . Writing , on the 1 st of February ,

1715 , from the Charter House , London , to that laborious editor of England ' s mediaeval Latin literature , Thos . Hearne , at Oxford , a Mr . Bagford says : " I shall take notice of a very great curiosity , a brick , found in Mark-lane , about fourty years since 28 ft . beloAV the pavement . Near to

, this pi ace were dug up many quarters of wheat burnt very black , but yet sound , which were conjectured to have layn buried ever since the burning of this city about 800 years before . This brick is of a Roman make , and was a key-brick to the arch Avhere the corn was found . 'Tis made

of a curious red clay , and in base-relief on the front hath the figure of Sampson putting fire to the foxes tayles , and driving them into a field of corn ; and this brick is at this time preserved in the Museum belonging to the Royal Society in Fleet-steet , from whence I have caused an accurate draug'ht of it to be sent you , " & c . So much did Hearne think of this discovery

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1864-09-17, Page 7” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 11 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_17091864/page/7/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
THE BALLOT IN MASONIC LODGES. Article 1
WEST YORKSHIRE. Article 2
LIABILITY OP MASON'S. Article 2
DRUIDICAL FESTIVAL AT LLANDUDNO. Article 3
WINDSOR AND VERRIO. Article 3
TERRA-COTTA AND LUCA DELLA ROBBIA WARE, CONSIDERED ON THE PRINCIPLES OE DECORATIVE ART. Article 4
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 8
Untitled Article 10
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 11
OUR MASONIC CHARITIES. Article 11
FREEMASONRY IN THE MAURITIUS. Article 12
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 13
PROVINCIAL. Article 13
ROYAL ARCH. Article 13
MARK MASONRY. Article 14
CANADA. Article 14
INDIA. Article 15
Untitled Article 17
REVIEWS. Article 17
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Article 17
THE WEEK. Article 18
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Oe Decorative Art.

their lordships' suggestion , I shall seek from within the Museum itself such objects as more fittingly exemplify my observations ; and if the things themselves are not immediately before your eyes upon the table , it is because several of them are too largetoo preciousto ask for and have

unfas-, , tened from the Avails , Avhere I hope they may hang , in their present well-arranged order , to delight ancl instruct the world for ages yet to come . At the outset I ought to say that , to smgularise each and every valuable article belonging , in the museum , " to our subjectAvould be as tiring as useless . -

, When , therefore , I happen to select one specimen , it is not that all the others are less important in art , or under it in value , but only less apt , as I look upon them , to illustrate that particular point upon Avhich I Avant to throw , as best I may , some little light .

" Terra-cotta , as you may knoAV , is Italian , and signifies " cooked or baked earth , " and we Anglicise the expression as " burned clay . " Though , in strictness , applicable to all the appurtenances of household use—to everything , in fact , made out of that substance—the term is here employed in its

restricted sense , and must be understood as referring solely to such of its manipulations as bear about them a decorative plastic character . The so-called " Della Robbia Ware" is burned clay , presenting itself to us under the form of its very highest—most artistic development wherein ,

to all the beauties of statuary , it has given it the additional charm of colour heightened by bright glazing . Begin Ave UOAV Avith " burned clay , " looked at in its first simple shape , that is , as a decorative ornament , with no other than its OAVU natural self colour about it .

Among the materials employed by man in his earliest attempts at anything like decorative art , one—perhaps the very first—was burned clay ; and of the use of it as such , Ave shall find proofs in every country . Passing by the land of Sennaar , Avith it Babel toAver , and reaching the valley of the

of the Nile , sure may Ave be , from the many curious fragments gathered there , that Avhile the Hebrews were making their bricks , their Egyptian masters ' hands were busy in fashioning- more artistic works in clay . Like Egypt , Phoenicia , both at home ancl in all her settlements on the northern shores of

Africa and in Spain , displayed the skill of her people in the use of the same material . In Greece , not the earliest of its worthies only , but the mightiest of its many mighty masters—Phidias himself , in all the full bloom of his fame , thought it not beneath his own glory nor the sculptor ' s art ,

like them , to work in clay . Go where you will in Italy , and dig where once stood its oldest cities , and you will find specimens of decorative burned clay . That delightful writer on Italian art and artists , Vasari , tells ns in his introduction to the " Lives , " that at Chiusi , one of the ancient towns of old Etruria , tiles in burned clay have been dug

up from the earth there , on which Avere figures in low relief , so admirably executed and in so good a manner , that all mig ht perceive the arts to be far from their first attempts when these were formed ; nay , rather from the perfection of the Avork , it miht be fairlinferred that they to

g y were nearer their hig hest summit than to their origin . . Had good Master George been treated , like ourselves , Avith the sight of that long-lost but now unburied city of Pompeii , and walked its streets , he would have beheld the practical use to which those old Romans put works wrought in clayas he found

, the shopkeeper's sign of his trade done in that material over his door . Thus , the milkman shoAved a goat ; the wine-seller displayed two men carrying between them , slung upon a pole , a narrow , long , two-handled pitcher , then called an amphora , in which the custom AA as to store their wine ; nor

would the observant George overlook in the museum the painting that the schoolmaster hung out , shoAving the animated scene of the idler or truant horsed upon another ' s back , or boy plaintive , in more senses than one , against birch , coloured to the life and quite in accordance , as the Austrian

friars at St . Giminiano's thought , with tlie discipline folloAved hy the pedagogue of Madaura , for whipping Greek into the reluctant little Austin , afterwards so good , so great , so famous—done , too , in such a manner as would have joyed the heart of any rod-loving Dr . Busby .

That our forefathers the Britons , even in their earliest or Celtic period , long before the coming hither of the Romans , knew somewhat of the potter's art , we learn from the vases and the beads of clay , ornamented after a manner , found in their cistvaens" or cromlechs—so their

stonebuilt graves are called . By the way , however , and as a caution , it may be well to notice how great have been the mistakes , on this point , committed by persons who , though otherwise well educated , have learned little of art and less of archaeology . Writing , on the 1 st of February ,

1715 , from the Charter House , London , to that laborious editor of England ' s mediaeval Latin literature , Thos . Hearne , at Oxford , a Mr . Bagford says : " I shall take notice of a very great curiosity , a brick , found in Mark-lane , about fourty years since 28 ft . beloAV the pavement . Near to

, this pi ace were dug up many quarters of wheat burnt very black , but yet sound , which were conjectured to have layn buried ever since the burning of this city about 800 years before . This brick is of a Roman make , and was a key-brick to the arch Avhere the corn was found . 'Tis made

of a curious red clay , and in base-relief on the front hath the figure of Sampson putting fire to the foxes tayles , and driving them into a field of corn ; and this brick is at this time preserved in the Museum belonging to the Royal Society in Fleet-steet , from whence I have caused an accurate draug'ht of it to be sent you , " & c . So much did Hearne think of this discovery

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