RuvidaMente
TRENTINO - ALTO ADIGE
In Trentino and South Tyrolean culture, the "stube" has ended up transcending its role as the epicenter of the house and taking on a high symbolic and cultural value that has positively "contaminated" all the components that were part of it. Among these, the most characteristic element is certainly the large masonry stove which, thanks to the skill and artistic sensitivity of local ceramists, ended up being enriched with refined majolica roofs.
In the local museums there are monumental specimens, beautifully decorated, which serve as a reference point for current productions, characterized by a workmanship of the highest quality, both aesthetically and functionally.
The most important workshops for the production of stoves and ceramic objects are concentrated in Bolzano and Brunico.
Here, most potters still shape clay with the traditional process and use old wood-burning ovens to fire it.
These procedures are used to shape terracotta bowls, vases, plates and cups, majolica tiles for stoves, artistic objects and ceramic figurines.
UMBRIA
In Umbria the ancient art of shaping clay has thrived in numerous centers (Deruta, Perugia, Gubbio, Gualdo Tadino, Orvieto, Città di Castello, Umbertide) and finds continuity in a craftsmanship that does not cease to research, document and protect its original characteristics to enhance the quality and specificity of the contemporary production of each locality.
Deruta is perhaps the center of the oldest tradition, documented since the 1200s, and reached its highest peaks in the 1500s, when the style was characterized by very white enamels and the use of orange, blue and yellow.
In the same century, the majolica produced in Gubbio by Giorgio Andreoli, the greatest Umbrian ceramist of the 1500s, famous for having introduced a technique of Arab origin that cloaks the works with golden reflections, also became popular. In Gualdo Tadino, third-firing ceramics are still made, the centuries-old pride of local manufactures, while industrial productions prefer medieval-inspired shapes and decorations.
The ceramics of Orvieto can also boast millenary traditions with an unmistakable style, where plant and animal motifs dominate in an original mixture of Etruscan and Romanesque elements. The artistic ceramics of Umbertide, which had great development in the thirties, is distinguished by the metallic reflections obtained with the "black fratta" technique, while in Città di Castello heraldic decorations and relief ornaments predominate.
In this blaze of high tones, however, not even the humble terracotta of everyday use, such as the vases, jars and amphorae of Ripabianca, or the vases, whistles and traditional "ziri" of Ficulle and the handmade and sun-dried terracotta bricks of Castel Viscardo, do not look out of place.
VENETO
The 1500s represented the century of maximum splendour of Venetian art ceramics, when, especially in the towns of Bassano del Grappa and Nove, in the province of Vicenza, some of the greatest ceramists of the time worked.
Since that period, a style characterized mainly by decorations has been consolidated, ranging from the representation of the seasons and months through figures of peasant life to the images of saints and prophets, to still lifes, to landscapes populated by ruins, typical of the eighteenth century.
Fortunately, this ancient artisan tradition continues to thrive and feeds a thriving market that prefers, in particular, mugs, tureens, large vases, knick-knacks, holy water fonts and centerpieces (those entirely glazed in white in the shape of baskets of flowers or fruit are in great demand).
Este, in the province of Padua, is the second largest production centre for handcrafted ceramics in the Veneto region.
Here, the first workshops were built in the eighteenth century, immediately imposing themselves for the elegant decorations with a mythological background, still faithfully reproduced by the numerous artisan workshops still in operation.
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