RuvidaMente
ABRUZZO
Castelli, on the Teramo slopes of the Gran Sasso mountain, is the historic capital of Abruzzo ceramics, developed between the 16th and early 19th centuries and handed down from father to son to the present day. The production ranges from copies of famous ceramics to modern productions, signed by renowned artists, to an affordable assortment of household objects, from ashtrays to salt cellars, from basins to candelabras, to containers of all shapes and sizes.
In the village, in addition to buying vases, plates and bowls historiated, with the typical Renaissance-style designs, in full-bodied and bright colors, especially blue, yellow and ochre, it is also possible to visit the workshops and admire the ceramists while they make their artifacts
From Castelli, the craftsmanship of ceramics has gradually spread to many other centers of the region where numerous production districts have developed, among which those of Ortona a Mare, Palena and Fara Filiorum Petri, in the province of Chieti, Loreto Aprutino, in the province of Pescara and Raiano, stand out for their liveliness and personality of style. in the province of L'Aquila.
BASILICATA
Linked to the primary needs of each community, the processing of terracotta containers was present in Basilicata well before the arrival of the Greeks.
This form of craftsmanship, although it has never evolved towards the more refined forms of ceramics (with the only exception, of recent tradition, of Venosa and Lavello, in the area around Potenza), has continued to be practiced to the present day, involving good craftsmen located above all in Grottole, in the province of Matera, where terracotta jars and amphorae are produced and worked in the caves dug into the tuff, which give the town its name, and Calvello, in the province of Potenza, where plates and pottery are made with light-colored vitrified surfaces.
There is no shortage of curious productions, linked to ancient popular traditions, such as the terracotta trumpets of Melfi, in the Vulture, and the "cuccù" of Matera, rooster-shaped whistles with which, in May, the pilgrimage to the Madonna di Picciano is sensationally accompanied.
CERAMICS AND TERRACOTTA IN
[Abruzzo•Basilicata] [Calabria•Campania] [Emilia•Latium•Liguria]
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