In considering the objects themselves, we should look at the place where those objects are produced, and a description of a typical medium sized workshop of the time is given by Picol Passo. Indeed the description of just such a workshop, how it functioned and produced what it did comprises the bulk of his treatise.
Castel Durante was a natural pottery centre by virtue of the clays deposited by the river Metauro, the manner of collection and subsequent processing of which is examined at the beginning of the first book. The potteries had benefited from the direct patronage of the rulers of the Duchy of Urbino during the hundred years preceding Picol Passo's time and painted maiolica was made in addition to the older, traditional clear-glazed and unglazed/utilitarian ware. The interest of Guidobaldo II, Duke of Urbino for most of Picol Passo's lifetime, in the pottery industry of his fief is well documented. One of his commissions still exists: a set of pharmacy jars, probably mainly of the albarello shape, now in the sanctuary of Santa Casa at Loreto, where 348 of them still exist.
The Medicis and Luxury Goods
Thus we have two reasons emerging for the existence of these workshops, the first of which is the production of cheap and useful objects for local needs. The second is the profit and notoriety to be gained from the production of expensive and exclusive products for the delight of those who could afford them. It is in this second category that we, predictably enough, encounter the interest of notable figures of the time, as it was the fashion of the day for men of privilege to gain some knowledge of many different areas of activity and learning. Picol Passo, citing the example of Cosimo I de' Medici, who, beside patronizing scholars and painters "....is willing with his own hand....to wield the hammer, there painting, there sculpting, now acting as a carpenter, there working on artillery, often as a founder at the furnaces, experimenting with metals to see if bronze comes out in a hard or soft alloy, With his Own hand to work as a master...."
Or, speaking of Fracesco Maria II of Urbino..... "On this Francesco Maria, duke of Urbino, my natural lord and master, has well employed his mind and already made a beginning with great fervour, having appointed in several places of his state certain apartments--in which, as is already seen in Pesaro, there are many workshops of the most excellent arts, such as Clock-makers, very accomplished gold-smiths, painters and sculptors. They are still employed in setting up furnaces and the like: here will be practiced the art of the smith, the art of the carpenter and amongst all the rest will be seen to flourish the art of the potter, already flourishing as it does more than in any other place in Italy..."
Day-to-Day in the Castel Durante
The workshops of the day would have consisted of a number of people who worked generally in their own areas, as well as a workshop managers and Picol Passo gives an approximation of one foreman or manager, two throwers, two or three painters, one or two kiln-men plus a few general workers, perhaps apprentices. Thus, what we are looking at is a typical light-industry, positioned close to the source of its raw-materials, producing goods for local consumption and limited export, employing people on fixed-wages as well as sub-contracting, owned sometimes by the manager and at others by an individual not directly concerned with the day to day running of the workplace but having a controlling interest by virtue of capital input.
Another document which throws some light on such mundane details of day to day work is the book of accounts kept from 1453 to 1496 by Maestro Gentile Fornarni, a painter of pottery in Faenzai. Maestro Gentile received a retaining fee from a certain Maestro Giuglielmo and his sons, in whose workshop, or bottega, he painted vessels at a piecework rate when needs arose. He also painted in several other workshops, and from time to time he painted wooden bridal-coffers and carved images. Maestro Guiglielmo usually had one firing of finished ware every month, sometimes two when a large order was at hand. From August to December 1465 Maestro Gentile painted an average of 669 pieces a month. Maestro Gentile's accounts include the names of a number of painted designs, several of which appear in the Arte del' Vasio.
