Marta Matray Gloviczki on sun 21 sep 03
hi,
i am going to italy in a few days, and i found this on
the web about faenza, the city i am going to visit.
i thought it might interest some of you.
take care, "see" you when i come back,
ciao, marta
>>>Throughout the world, Faenza is synonymous for
ceramics. Five centuries ago, Faenza ware was already
a fundamental reference point for European ceramics
production and the term "faenza - faience" is used in
some regions of Europe as a synonym for majolica. This
is why the Faenza International Ceramics Museum,
founded in 1908 by Gaetano Ballardini, has become an
important international cultural research and
documentation centre for everything connected with
ceramics, offering the public an extensive selection
of ceramics from all around the world ranging from
ancient times to the present day. The Museum is
currently undergoing a majior transformation process
aimed at increasing exhibition space and allowing (as
can already be seen in palces) a more rational and
comprehensible presentation of the works to the
public.
The exhibition starts with pre-Columbian ceramics
presented with the support of sophisticated
explanatory material.
These are followed by classical ceramics from the
prehistoric to the Roman period and exhibits from the
Far East (China, Japan and Korea) and Middle East. On
the top floor of the old four-sided building, the
visitor can see an in-depth presentation of the
evolution of Faentine ceramics from the early Middle
Ages to the Renaissance ceramics divided into regions.
A further section will soon opened illustring later
developments in Italian ceramics between the sisth and
eighth centuries. In the newly created exhibition
area, visitors can also admire a selection of ceramics
made by the main European producers. The museum does
not concentrate exclusively on ceramics from the past,
but also follows closely wide the sector is producing
today. A wide section is therefore dedicated to
contemporary ceramics (partly in preparation), taking
as its starting point works from the "Premio Faenza"
competitions held since 1938. This section also
includes masterpieces from internationally recognised
artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Rouault, Léger,
Chagall, Leoncillo, Fontana, Burri, Martini, Melotti,
Nespolo, Baj, Arman and Matta. Finally in the new
conference hall, the visitor can see a multi-vision
presentation on the origins of the Museum.
Faenza is by cultural tradition defined as City of the
Ceramics. It lies 50Km (30 mls) south of Bologna, and
while an important agricultural as well as an
industrial centre, it owes its renown to ceramics.
The role of Faenza in the ceramics field is
well-known: its name, in the French version Fayence,
has meant for centuries a prestige kind of ceramics;
no other ceramics-producing city can boast of having
kept its stoves alight since ancient Middle Age.
Faenza hosts a great number of ceramics-related
cultural associations: schools and institutes, of
various degree, with specific addresses about the
different artistical and technological aspects of
ceramics, the International Museum of Ceramics, which
has the most copious collection of ceramics from every
time and country, exhibitions and important artistic,
historical, didactic, retrospective and projectual
contests. In 1988 was constituted the "Ceramics Pole
Agency" with the goal of spreading technological
improvements and of cultural and economical valorizing
for national ceramics enterprises, with regards to its
artistical, of craftsmanship, industrial and of
advanced ceramic materials.Evolution: The 20th century
The panorama of ceramics production in Faenza during
the 18th century has, without a doubt, one outstanding
phenomenonthe Conti Ferniani Manufacory, whose life
began in October 1693 Count Annibale Carlo Ferniani
took over the old Cavina - Grossi - Tonducci
Manufactory. From that day, and for the following two
centuries, this factory set its mark and character on
a good part of the ceramics porduced by this city of
Romagna.
At the start, factory production continued mainly in
the so - called " Faenza white ware " tradition, but
towards the middle of the 18th century it opened
itsdoors to the middle of the new taste in decoration,
inspired on the one hand by European - especially
French - fashion, and on the other by exotic elements,
as in " chinoi - serie "decoration, whose spread was
due in great parat to the massive importation of
Chinese and Japanese porcelain by the East India
Companies.But the Ferniani Manufactory also played an
important part in the history of Faenza ceramics as a
technological innovator. There, during the second half
of the century, the "petit feu " technique took its
place beside traditional work methods , and a new
ceramics product, of English origin, was adopted -
terraglia , or cream- colored earthenware.
Originally a porcelain technique , the "petit feu
"(600°) made it possible to further enrich the range
of colors employed at that time, and ceramics painters
excelled in it .
There were Benini and Ragazzini and, above all,
Filippo Comerio of Bergamo whose subjects - beggars,
bare landscapes, small figures, done in a brilliant
transparent green againist a manganese black outline -
engendered the so- called "Comerio" type.
In 1778 terraglia , or cream - colored earthenware ,
took its place beside traditional majolica . Skillful
sculptors - such as Alessandro Tomba, Antonio
Trentanove, G. Pani, Giambattista Sangiorgi ,
Giambattista and Francesco Ballanti, and others -
would soon use it to make plstic groups representing
mythological subjects in the round, and extremely
refined crockery with ornamentation in relief. Towards
the end of the century and at the beginning of the
next, the various vessels making up a table service
were adorned with a new, delicate decoration.
There were vine leaves, festoons, acorns, mainly used
on flat plates , vases, tureens - forms whose
simplicity and linearity revealed the new neoclassical
taste. In the 19th century, both the Ferniani
Manufactory and other , minor shop returned to
traditional grand feu decoration (920°) while
continuing to produce terraglia . The tendency in this
return was to retrieve the techniques of the old
masters and to reappraise the classical themes of 16th
century Faenza majolica , especially " Raphaelesque"
decoration. During the second half of the century,
around 1870, an actual school of majolica painting was
founded under the leaderschip of Achille Farina, a
majolica craftsman and painter who had mastered the
craft at the Ferniani Manufactory. This school, with
its imitation of easel painting techniques, has left
us a good many watercolors, scenic views and
naturalistc portraits.
=====
marta matray gloviczki
rochester,mn
http://users.skynet.be/russel.fouts/Marta.htm
http://www.silverhawk.com/crafts/gloviczki/welcome.html
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