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Italian Maiolica: Ceramic Beauty That Works
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20281 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
1,697 Words |
| Author
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Marcia Forsberg
Marcia Forsberg has written for Il Quadrifoglio and other
publications. |
There's a renaissance, of sorts, taking place in formal dining rooms and casual breakfast rooms, on patios, on tables, and on window ledges and walls throughout the country. It is a departure from the spare minimalism of contemporary design, and it represents a yielding to an organic, decorative sensibility.
Enter contemporary maiolica: handcrafted and hand-painted ceramics from Italy. Named from a traditional craft originating in Majorca, Spain, it is earthenware twice-fired and made of the fine, extremely durable red clay of the Mediterranean region. The clay is fashioned by hand into dinnerware, urns, cachepots, tiles, and other objects, and then it is dipped into a white, opaque glaze. Finally, it is embellished with painted flowers, fruits, geometric patterns, birds, dragons, cherubs, religious or mythic scenes, or other motifs.
The resurgence of this ceramic is evidence that high tech indeed can coexist peacefully, even happily, with colorful, low-tech ornamentation. It expresses the human desire for unity between the aesthetic and the utilitarian.
These contemporary ceramics, though descendants of the Renaissance, are well on their way to making the tabletop and interior statement of the nineties. Along with the spreading maiolica vogue, we see a movement toward more in-home entertaining and a need to create a personal collection of objects that reflects the more natural, earthy side of life. It is all part of a trend to add humanness, warmth, and color to the sleek, slick and hard-edged blacks, whites, and grays that characterize so much of contemporary interior aesthetics.
Frutta Brunch
The color and warmth of maiolica make it a natural for those casual, relaxed weekend brunches with friends and neighbors. The next time you have such an occasion, lay a brightly colored runner the length of your table and then dine buffet-style with dishes painted with fruit designs or peasant scenes.
Your choices of style and color are immense. Loosely rendered patterns like Frutta and Buon Girono depict an assortment of fruits in washed, muted tones. The Frutta design originated in the fifteenth century in Italy's wine-producing region of Chianti. The traditional Buon Giorno pattern is reminiscent of the fruits grown on the hillsides of Sicily. Sketchy, sunny peasant scenes on Vietri dishes are based on fifteenth-and sixteenth-century hand
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