Author: Tiziana Manzetti

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Lucia Angeloni – Stitching Past and Present

Italian Ceramics - Mediterraneità by Lucia AngeloniLast year strolling in the main street in Gubbio, Manuela and I were attracted by some contemporary ceramic works on display in the window of a gallery. We visited the gallery and asked some info about one of the artists, named Lucia Angeloni.

Actually, the name rang a bell, as well as the style. We gave the matter some thought and we remembered that a few years before Giampietro Rampini had shown us a very interesting Brocca dei Ceri made by Lucia. He had told us: “If you’re looking for some good ceramic art you girls  should meet her because she definitely is one of the best artists I know of and I can introduce you to her”. At the time we were still working hard on setting up thatsArte.com and we did not have any time for our personal collection.

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Argillà – Faenza Pottery Festival

Sept. 4- 5, 2010
Faenza – Italy

Faenza International pottery festival

Launched only two years ago, Argillà has already become the largest International pottery festival in Italy. In a few weekends almost 200 selected ceramicists from Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Nederland, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia and other European countries will display their works in the historical district in Faenza.

A great chance for anyone to discover the world of pottery and pottery makers, to learn more about ceramics or just to have fun.

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The Rubboli Collection – Italian lustre pottery in Gualdo Tadino

July 17 – October 3, 2010
Gualdo Tadino – Italy
Italian Ceramics - Small lustred plate with Raffaello portrait by Paolo Rubboli (1875 ca) - Photo credits: www.allegracombriccola.netThis important exhibition features 120 ceramic works, majolica and lusterware (tin glazed pottery), made by the Rubboli factory and by other important pottery factories, such as Ginori, Miliani, William de Morgan, Cantagalli, Galileo Chini, La Salamandra and Alan Caiger Smith, thus offering an excellent overview on the history and the tradition of lustres both in Italy and in the UK from 1870 to the last decades.

The works are displayed in the Monumental Church of San Francesco in Gualdo Tadino, home town of Paolo Rubboli, after a previous successful run in Perugia.
Additional pottery made by Paolo Rubboli (1838-1890) is on display at the Museo Civico Rocca Flea.

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When Art becomes Pottery

June 20 – August 22, 2010
Perugia – Italy

A collective exhibition faces the old dilemma: Arts or Crafts? The answer offered to its visitors is: both.

Functional pottery made in Deruta is manipulated by the artists to create Art works, with eyes and minds wide open to new techniques.

The artists who are displaying their works are: Luca Aglietti, Valentina Campagni, Serena Cavallini, Michela Crisostomi, Stefano Fanara, Mauro Martin, Tiziano Micci, Laura Pozzi Rinaldi, Marco Prati, Stefano Selmi, Maurizio Sicchiero, Matgherita Taticchi, Milena Teneggi, RZ.
Centro Strozzi per l’Arte Contemporanea
Strada Della Parlesca
Perugia
Phone: 0039 075604377
Email: centrodartetorrestrozzi@virgilio.it

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The Pottery Route. Renaissance majolica from Marche and Umbria.

June 16, 2010 – January 30, 2011
Gubbio – Italy

Photo credits: www.maggioeugubino.com

The Pottery Route evokes the geographic and artistic connection among Deruta, Gubbio, Castel Durante (now Urbania), Urbino and Pesaro, which were important pottery making hubs during the Renaissance. And so most of them are now.

At the time the route was actually very busy. Artists and merchants traveled from one village to the other to trade their talent or their goods.
Gubbio enjoyed a strategic position on the trail because it belonged to the Duke of Urbino, who owned most of the Marche and was known to encourage and protect Arts, but it was located near Perugia and Deruta, which had their own peculiar artistic style

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Tuscan pottery and more

Are you planning to visit Tuscany? Tuscan pottery, arts and crafts are one of the reasons you go there?

Then you’ll love the project Collezioni Toscane, sponsored by the regional government.

It features a directory of 300 studios (botteghe) and artisans who make traditional hand made goods in Tuscany. Places where breathtaking objects are made out of gold, semi precious stones, silver, scagliola, clay, leather and paper.

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White Italian Majolica – Faenza and Rome

Until August 22, 2010
Faenza – Italy

Sept. 16 – Nov. 28
Rome – Italy

The exhibition celebrates “the whites”, Italian ceramics - Plate with Tedoforo, Ceramics Museum of San Nicola Basilica in Tolentino - Photo credits: www.micfaenza.orga specific style of pottery that arose in Faenza in the 1540s.

Their innovative shapes, designs and glazes determined their immediate success; within a few years from their appearance on the market, they were already so popular that many potters started to make them, both in Italy and in other European countries.

Known as the “pottery from Faenza”  or faentini, the whites became so famous that French people shortened their name to “faience”, that is now the French name for Majolica or Pottery.

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Cantagalli, the Scottish dimension

by Sheila Forbes

On 31 August 1880 Margaret Tod and Ulisse Cantagalli were married in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Mary’s, Edinburgh, with Ulisse’s brother Romeo, and Margaret’s brother Robert, as witnesses. His Grace, John Menzies Strain, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, officiated, thereby establishing a permanent bond between the two fine cities of Edinburgh and Florence (SCA).

The Tods of Edinburgh
Margaret’s father was Robert Tod, Mill owner, a partner in Alexander & Robert Tod Ltd., Leith Flour Mills (NAS D76/1056), and a Leith Harbour and Dock Commissioner (NAS SC70/4/298).

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Italian authorities seize fake Deruta pottery

Do you remember our article about Deruta municipality stepping in to fight fake handmade pottery? Well, it has taken them some time, but results are definitely coming in!

Last February, after a two year long investigation, Italian police charged the owners of three companies located in Assisi and Deruta with fraud and other administrative crimes. They manufactured fake Raffaellesco and Ricco Deruta pottery that was then partly sold to bus loads of unaware tourists visiting Assisi, partly exported to Europe, Japan and to the US at competitive prices.

The fact is, none of the pieces they sold was actually handmade. Instead, decals (transfers) were used to apply Raffaellesco or Ricco Deruta patterns on the pottery surface, in violation of the law that protects the industrial trademarks. And the process was not even carried out in Deruta…
The officials seized more than 2000 ceramic items made with decals but bearing the words “handpainted in Deruta”.

Deruta Mayor – A. Verbena – is rightly proud of this important result, that was made possible by the cooperation between the Municipality and the Police Authorities. And so are the dozens of honest artists who daily work hard to keep up the tradition of handmade pottery.

Our thanks to anyone involved in the operations. Let’s protect the quality of our “Made in Italy”. It’s our heritage and our most precious resource.

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A Monumental Ceramic Art Panel: Canto alla Luna

Impruneta (Florence) – Italy

Italian Ceramics - “Canto alla luna”, polychrome glazed terracotta (cm. 280x200) by Santo Tomiano and Sergio Ricceri - Photo credits: www.cantoallaluna.comAn impressive number of combinations makes this work as unique as Art can be.
First, the combination of modern taste and the technique invented by Luca Della Robbia during the Renaissance. His revolutionary mixture of minerals was used to glaze large terracotta sculptures and panels and make them almost eternal. A breakthrough in the artistic production of the Renaissance pottery and a much welcomed revival today.

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