Orazio Fontana

In the early to mid-sixteenth century, the duchy of Urbino in central Italy became a major center of maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) production. At that time, the Fontana family workshop was the most successful in the region. The workshop was run by the patriarch of the family, Guido Durantino, who took the name Fontana and who may have benefited from the patronage of the Duke of Urbino. Orazio Fontana, who had also been a pupil of the Venetian painter and printmaker Battista Franco (c. 1510–1561), started as a painter of ceramic wares in his father’s workshop. In 1564, Orazio worked as a master potter for the Duke of Savoy in Turin, and by 1565, was able to leave the family workshop—where his brother Camillo and his cousin Flaminio were also employed—to start his own. Orazio’s style has been called more lively than careful, but this did not prevent him from producing maiolica for the Medici court in Florence, as well as tile-ware for clients as far away as Portugal.