Majolica part II: Faenza, where the Majolica was born.

As we promise in our previous note, we are going to talk a bit about Faenza, where Majolica art was born. Let’s use a modern term, as Brand.

Faenza is a beautiful and typical town from central Italy. It is located in Emilia Romagna, the land of the Parmesan cheese and Prosciutto di Parma, surrounded by Sangiovese vineyards and olives. As we mention in our previous note in the 16th century Faenza, along with other Italian towns became one of the most important Majolica production center in Europe, in fact the Faenza style exerted a profound influence on European pottery styles.

The first evidence of Faentine pottery dated back to the first centuries after the year 1000. The artisans were able to benefit from the local clay near the Lamone river, useful for the manufacture of pottery pieces, mainly for domestic use and due to the geographical location they learned to mediate with originality with the Lombard, Venetian and Tuscany cultures mixing them up and creating their own style.

The production was characterized by continuous repetition of the ornamental themes such as floral, portraits or mythological scenes, without excessive stylistic ramblings and with the use of blue monochrome with hints of orange, green, yellow and red.

By the end of the XV century the production of painted Majolica was already stablished and by the XVI century Majolica production became a local craft industry producing a variety of jars, pots, mugs, plates, trays and Albarelli, an antique pharmaceutical jar designed to hold ointments and dry drugs usually decorated with floral motifs against white backgrounds or portraits of cherubs or priests and sometimes included a label describing the content of the jar. By the end of this century the Faentine workshops reached its own decorative linguistic autonomy, together with a high technical quality.

The development of this art transformed Faenza in the “city of ceramics” and making the term “Faïence” the French word for artistic ceramics.

Today, Faenza is a city of art and has the most representative ceramic museum known as The International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza and recognized by the UNESCO as “Monument testifying a culture of peace” following the UNESCO program of 2000 devoted to the Peace Culture.

So, next time you visit Italy include in your trip a stop in a parmigian factory, drink some Sangiovese and visit Faenza, three memories that are priceless and that you will keep in your memory forever……and to motivate you even more, did you know that every two years Faenza holds the International Ceramics Festival and Market-Fair? A long weekend celebrating this art with live exhibitions and market-fair along the streets of Faenza downtown with music and local food. It’s called Argilla and the next festival will be held on the first weekend of September 2020……..so see you at Faenza!!