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Italian ceramics: how ceramic tableware becomes art

Dragons Roosters. Biscotti jars. Oh my! Raffaellesco. Ricco. Frutta Mista. Fresh Grape. I am a hook, line and sinker captivated by their expressions, color and soul. This is not just ceramic; These are Italian ceramics, majolica, deruta ceramics, Italian tableware, ceramics, some of the names by which these works of art are called. Welcome to a world where every meal becomes a celebration, served on “canvases”, hand painted by masters or artists who have studied with masters, who spend hours lovingly and skillfully creating their modern masterpieces!

This world is like living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, my hometown. Either you love magic or you wonder what all the excitement is about. Italian pottery is tableware, dinnerware, dinnerware, and kitchen accessories, but not a mere accumulation of plates and bowls. It’s an adventure. It’s art. It is an education. It is pure pleasure! It implies a development of centuries. It honors the tradition of the artist-craftsman handed down from generation to generation. It leads you to name places like Deruta and Orvieto. Causes you to stretch out the last syllable of fun words to say out loud like Alcantara, Limone, and Lunetta. And the colors, the colors dance before your eyes making you so happy that they can make you cry!

It takes a bit of familiarization to understand this world of Italian ceramics. Let’s take Raffaellesco as our example today. One of the most recognized and enduring Italian ceramic patterns, Raffaellesco is a “design”, inspired by the frescoes of its namesake, Raphael (Italian Renaissance artist, 1483-1520). A stylized mythical dragon is often central to this famous pattern, and sometimes two or three! Beyond its whimsical appearance presented in luscious shades of deep yellow, pops of red, blues and greens, why would you want a collection of dragons? Well they is it so symbols of good fortune. Those scrolls that sprout from her puffy cheeks symbolize pleasant winds. Dragons, as old world stories say, were the providers of mythical relief from the depression of the maritime merchants. (I believe dragons still breathe energy in Italian oven fires today, inspiring both their own continued production and their new offspring.)

But I digress. There are as many patterns presented as Raffaellesco, at first it seems like a complicated maze. While the patterns have similarities, the designs differ markedly, as do their shapes and sizes. But why? It turns out that the explanation is very simple and shows the importance of this precious motif for the Deruta culture. The abundance of variations in the Raffaellesco pattern results from Many independent studios and companies in the city of Deruta (Perugia, Umbria) that produce Raffaellesco.

A musical analogy comes to mind. Think about your favorite song, the number of artists who sing it, and the “stages” from which they perform: small nightclubs, Central Park concerts, recording studios, and so on. Each artist gives the song a very personal interpretation, one more masterful than the other. Depending on the artist’s reputation, popularity, and level of “ecstasy,” you could pay a lot of money to see him in person and take home a signed copy of his CD to add to your music collection. But regardless of who sings it, you recognize the song.

This is the case with the Raffaellesco “collection” and other “Made in Italy” ceramic collections. Artistic performances make a difference. Production process and techniques, attention to detail, devotion to tradition, heritage – all affect the resulting authentic product and its value. The result is handmade, hand-painted works of art, the “canvases” on which you can present your pasta, roasted vegetables, roast or hamburgers and with which you can linger while sipping an espresso or tea. And, if after dinner you bring those Italian pieces back to prominence in a glass-fronted cabinet or on a wall, that’s perfect. After all, it is functional art, created to give you euphoria and visceral pleasure no matter how you choose to live with it.

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