History of Ceramics in Tuscany

The area around Arezzo

The area around Arezzo has been known since ancient times to be one of the places really suited to the manufacture of ceramics.
It was Arezzo that, in the 1st century B.C., heralded the revival in the production of earthenware, marked by the disappearance of black painted pots. It was aso the place which saw the birth of the “terra sigillata” (earthenwear bearing a seal), once known as “Aretina”, in fact. Celebrated by the most important Latin writers, among them Cicero, pots from Arezzo were also called “corallini” because of the bright red colour with which they were glazed. The production of the “terra sigillata italica”, as archaeologists called this kind of ceramics due to the sigillum (a small indentation with the abbreviated name) of the owner of the factory, spread throughout the Peninsula and subsequently to all provinces of the empire.

We know little about production in the Arezzo area in medieval times, but it is clear that this existed also in the main town, where traces of ceramic work remained for a long time. It is also known that there were probably connections outside the town, between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era, given that there were potters from Siena and Montelupo who belonged to the Sartori family. It cannot be said, therefore that no majolica was manufactured in Arezzo, but only engobed ceramics (slipglaze ware), considered to be a more humble product.
It is also likely that in Cortona, Sansepolcro and other well populated walled towns around Arezzo, such as Castiglion Fiorentino, ceramic objects were produced. In Sansepolcro, in particular, whose clay is known for its good quality, there is evidence of the presence of potters during the 14th century and proof of majolica-making there in the second half of the 17th century.

Documents referring to the production of ceramics in the Modern Era concern the towns of Monte San Savino and Anghiari, while recent finds show how in Castiglion Fiorentino glazed earthenware was produced in the 17th and 18th centuries, probably using biscuit ware covered with a white slip glaze. In all these places – with the exception of Anghiari, which is mentioned in the Relazione sullo stato delle manifatture (report on the state of manufacture) in 1768 indicating the current types of earthenware made there – there is no clear description of the products.
What is known today about ceramics in the Arezzo area in the Modern Era is mainly connected to the majolica kiln built at the end of the 17th century in villa Catrosse, in Cortona, belonging to the Venuti family. Some pioneer studies on this subject have tried to attribute to this factory the manufacture of refined tableware, covered in good quality snow-white glaze, but without any painted decoration. We know, however, how during the 19th century in Catrosse, they also produced majolica statuettes. The work of this factory was interrupted only during the First World War years.

Nostalgia for the renowned traditions of ceramics in the Arezzo area, and in particular the fame of its “vasi corallini”, was behind the attempt in 1919 at a revival of local ceramic work by Alessandro del Vita by setting up the factory Arretina Ars. Here, in fact, he rediscovered the technique of the Roman “terra sigillata”, presenting it as part of a wider neoclassic line, in which there were also reproductions of Greek urns with figures. In the early 1920s his brother Antonio joined the company and the Arezzo factory widened its horizon, producing ceramics of “public utility”. Although the experiments on old Arezzo earthenware had a successful outcome, it showed that the Roman technique was not compatible with the modern system of manufacture.
In 1925 Zulimo Aretini, already operating in Monte San Savino, moved to Arezzo to set up the factory named Antica Bottega del Ceramista. Artists of different origins and ideas worked together in this atelier, and here an important revival of the polychrome sgraffito on a slip glaze took place. This is a technique which spread widely in the 1920s and 1930s and which marked the “Neomedieval” production of the Manifattura Milani in Montopoli Valdarno. Aretini soon left Arezzo to go to Perugia, but returned to this Tuscan city in 1930, where he set up a new kiln called Arretium.
At the beginning of 1932 another factory was set up, the Umbro-Aretina, which later moved to Perugia and took the name of Maioliche d’Arte Umbro-Aretine and continued to operate until 1943.

Fausto Berti

• INTRODUCING THE HISTORY OF CERAMICS IN TUSCANY
• A summary
• THE AREAS
• Arezzo
• Firenze - Prato
• Pisa
• Siena

• Terre di Toscana in Arezzo area
• ANGHIARI

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