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Loza dorada – The Hispano-Moresque Ceramics and the Origins of Italian Majolica

Hispano-Moresque ceramicIn 711 a small army of North African Berbers invaded Spain and established an Iberian Islamic culture that would last for over 700 years.

This event was to make a major contribution to the development of art pottery in Europe.

Moors were great potters. Their techniques had traveled with them through North Africa to the Iberian peninsula, where they became well established, possibly as early as the 11th century.

They manufactured elaborate tin glazed pottery and metallic lusters which were still unknown in Europe. The success of their ceramics was immediate and soon they began to export them all over Europe.

Italian people were passionate about Hispano-Moresque pottery.
Local potters had never seen anything like that and wanted to investigate those innovative techniques. Collectors just loved them and ordered celebration plates, apothecary jars and tableware.

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Sharing the same passion for Italian Ceramics

Italian wall plate by Marco e Vasco Bertini (Firenze) We started this blog driven by our passion for Italian ceramics, a feeling we LOVE to share with other people (passion without sharing is such a waste, don’t you think so?).

Everything about this subject rouses our interest and stimulates us to research and learn and …share. We’re never tired: there is so much to say about Italian ceramics beyond technicalities and detailed descriptions.

Each piece, without exception, is the result of our history, culture, art and tradition. Nothing is more rewarding than meeting people who share our enthusiasm!

Can you imagine the surprise and excitement when we read a comment posted here by Walter Del Pellegrino? Walter and Karen Del Pellegrino are the authors of the first and most informative guides to the identification of Italian pottery written in English. Their handbooks are a MUST for collectors, antique dealers and pottery lovers. They also maintain a dedicated Italian pottery forum where they assist people who wish to learn more about their Italian ceramics.

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Vetralla’s Last Potter

Sometimes, when I have some leisure time – not very often I’m afraid – I like to explore the neighborhood of Viterbo where I have been living for the past 5 years. I must admit that I still need to learn a lot about this rich area known as Etruria. Italian pottery artist Chello LalloIt is an untouched and charming area half way between Rome and Tuscany, where Etruscan and Roman heritage continue to live.

Well, as I said, I was driving on the Via Cassia when I decided to stop in Vetralla. My friend Mary Jane had told me about an old potter working there and I decided to pay him a visit. I’ll never thank her enough.

I had to stop a couple of times and ask for directions. I could not believe my eyes: the place I was looking for is a dark grotto on the hillside where the only light is from the doorway and a bare light bulb. Felice, the last “pilaro” (pot maker) in Vetralla, works there, just as his ancestors used to do.
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Tonina Cecchetti – “Vèstíti di vestíti”

February 15 – April 19, 2008
Firenze – Italy

A solo exhibition will feature Tonina Cecchetti’s most recent works: large and small sculptures made of terracotta and coated in different materials.
Terracotta sculpture by Tonina CecchettiThe mother and child theme runs through each and every work with poetical intensity. Their “clothes” protect them but at the same time imprison them in an ambiguity or dilemma which is typical of Cecchetti’s art philosophy.
Iron, leather, wool and other recycled materials are matched to painted and glazed terracotta.
Tonina Cecchetti lives in Sigillo, not far from Gubbio in Umbria, where the tradition of pottery making is deeply rooted. Gubbio ceramics are very famous thanks to Mastro Giorgio’s lustres which are among the masterpieces of Italian Renaissance art heritage.

Galleria Varart
Via dell’Oriuolo, 47-49r, Firenze
Tel. +39 055 284265
varart@tin.it

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Luca Caimmi – Just Behind. Poi fu la volta della Terra

February 16 – March 13, 2008
Mondolfo – Italy

Quasi fino all'orlo - 2005 - Luca CaimmiIn Luca Caimmi’s hands, traditional structures are re-invented. The subtle beauty of his works can be found in the balance of volume and shape. A shape inspired by a vase is not meant to contain something but to delimit the void.

His ceramics are white with silver details: the organic, earthly origin of the clay is thus hidden and forgotten. Time is frozen into eternity.

Galleria Pu-Ri’
Via XX Settembre 13
Tue/Sun: 10.00/18.00 – Thu: 10:00/22:00
Tel. +39 0721 957201
puricomunicazione@gmail.com

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Italian Ceramics from Castelli – State Hermitage Museum Collection

February 5 – May 11, 2008
St Petersburg – Russia

Italian ceramic large albarello vase - Castelli 1735 - Private collectionThe awesome Italian majolicas from Castelli belonging to the Hermitage Fund have just returned to St Petersburg after a very successful tour in Italy.
The State Hermitage Museum will feature them in the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace until May 11th, 2008.

The Hermitage collection includes 77 works that were purchased in Italy by Russian art merchants on behalf of the Russian Tsars and other wealthy families between the 16th and the 17th century.
They had excellent taste: they bought pieces painted by the most talented masters in Castelli, such as Carmine Gentile, Carlo Antonio Grue, Pompeo de Bernamonte, Orazio Pompei, Francesco Antonio Grue, Nicola Cappelletti.

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Luigi Ontani –MAMbo: Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna

January 23 – May 4, 2008
Bologna – Italy

Bonaventurarte, 1998 - Ceramic - Collezione GropelloOne of the foremost Italian artists working today, Luigi Ontani (Italian, born in 1943) has redefined the image of the contemporary artist through his works. His installations, ceramic sculptures and tableaux vivants (living paintings) are a landmark in the history of performance art and photography.

Ontani describes his art as “the adventure I live as a person of art”.
As a matter of fact, he uses his own body as the medium for communication and by means of costumes and masks he assumes the fictional identities of his favorite heroes from mythology, fairytales, history and art history. He said: “I live this ambiguity with irony and aspiring to harmony. My art is the adventure I live on myself.”
As the subject of his art, Ontani can live art, create art, and express his love for art.

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The “Arlecchini” from Montelupo in the History of Italian Ceramics

Italian ceramics history: MontelupoMade with earth, water and fire, ceramics are by definition functional to human life.

Since the very beginning of ceramic making, though, the need to go beyond the sheer utilitarianism pushed the artist to use clay as a way of expressing ideas, feelings and meanings.

During the Renaissance Italian potters achieved the perfect union of function and art that would bring Italian ceramics world wide celebrity.
Noble families and wealthy merchants were in competition for the most richly decorated istoriato wall plates, whose subjects were very often derived from religion, myth and history.

Simple people certainly could not understand nor afford this kind of traditional Italian ceramics. They mostly used pottery for functional purposes, although here and there some local ceramic trends developed for the community to enjoy. One of the most worth mentioning is the “Arlecchini” from Montelupo, in Tuscany.

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“Effetti Personali” – Contemporary ceramic works by Giorgio Laveri

January 31 – March 8, 2008
Turin – Italy

laveri2.jpg“Effetti Personali” is an amazing exhibition. Laveri’s extra large Italian ceramic works are the eye-catching result of a new attitude of looking at and rethinking the simple objects that surround us and belong to our everyday routine.

Laveri highlights and provides with a new dignity the apparently meaningless things that cross our path everyday, without having the chance of being noticed.
Their role in our life is reversed: they become giant artworks, grab our attention, escape death through the miracle of the firing.

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Hey! That’s us!!! Look what they say about our Italian ceramics site.

We were just running an exciting tour over the Internet to find out how fast our popularity is improving when we stumbled upon this comment, posted here on Delicious.

eBay’s real competition — its customers

I have bought a few pieces of Italian ceramics on eBay from a seller named Tiziana. She just launched the phenomenal new website behind this link. If two moms in rural Italy can produce a site of this quality, eBay gets the first sale only. Big trouble.
Posted on Oct 02 2007

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