Oct. 25, 2008 – February 28, 2009
Gualdo Tadino, Italy

Alfredo Santarelli is one of the most important Italian Ceramic Artists of the 20th century. His talent in drawing and his mastery in the tin glazing technique (lusterware) won him a large number of golden medals in International and Italian ceramic exhibitions. His excellent portraits and classic subjects are prized collectors’ items but he also interpreted Islamic, Liberty and Art Deco designs and shapes with great originality.

The curators of the exhibition, Prof. Enzo Storelli and Prof. Mario Becchetti, have selected for this very special event the best works made by Santarelli, ranging from his “historical” pottery to the modern 20th century pieces.

Santarelli was very much intrigued by the Visual Arts of the Past. The pieces he owes his fame to were inspired by Egyptian, Etruscan, Classic, Gothic, Hispano-Moresque, Renaissance, Neoclassic and Pre-Raphaelite models. They stand out in the modern Ceramic Art for their remarkably elegant execution and creativity, their philological exactitude and the sumptuous iridescence of their ruby and golden lustre.

In the second half of the 20’s his art evolved in line with the contemporary trends. His Art Deco and Liberty pieces are a tribute to Santarelli’s talented versatility.

Known as The Professor thanks to his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia, Santarelli was the first Italian ceramic artist to sign his works regularly. Here is an interesting hint for pottery collectors: his early factory signature was a A and a S laid one upon the other, painted in golden lustre. However the pieces he executed personally always bore his full name and they were often dated. Between 1913 and 1915 he used his full name in ruby lustre. Later he switched to a blue glazed signature, bearing on top a shining half sun.

More about Alfredo Santarelli

Born in Gualdo Tadino in 1874, he started his career in the pottery studio of Paolo Ribboli, who was the most skilled potter in Gualdo Tadino at the time. Here he learned the secrets of the lustre technique that he was to use on most of his ceramic works.

He set up his own studio in 1899 and immediately qualified as one of the most talented potters in Umbria. Only a few years later, he was invited by the founder of the Ceramics Museum in Deruta to join the newly born Pottery School, whose mission was to revive the local ceramic tradition, that had been almost completely lost in the previous century.

He must have done a great job, since he was soon after hired as Artistic Director in the new Anonymous Cooperative Society in Deruta. The production of the new factory had an enormous success and rightly restored the popularity of Deruta pottery in Italy and abroad.

In 1906 he was back in Gualdo, in his own studio. His special talent in drawing and painting was already well know and won him the permission to borrow the original collection of drawings by Mastro Giorgio Andreoli from Gubbio city gallery from which he copied some of the subjects used by Mastro Giorgio in his masterpieces.

Notably Santarelli was very much grateful to his birth city, Gualdo Tadino, whose tradition inspired his talent. That’s probably why he decided to found a Ceramic School next to his factory, which was to train the best wheel throwers and ceramic painters of the region.

By 1920 he was referred to as “not only the best ceramicist in Umbria, but the best in Italy, thanks to the perfection of his drawings, his refined shapes and the harmony of his glazes” and the number of golden medals won in International and Italian ceramic exhibitions increased by the year.

Alfredo Santarelli died in 1957, three year after the sale of his factory.

Alfredo Santarelli Exhibition
Chiesa monumentale di San Francesco
Every day: 10.30-12.30 am and 3.30-6.30 pm
Closed on Monday mornings