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Castelli Ceramics: 16th-17th centuries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection In the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace an exhibition has been opened, organized in response to the Castelli Ceramics from Italian collection, which was popularly received when displayed at the museum at the end of 2005 – beginning of 2006. Castelli is a small Italian city in the Teramo mountains, in Abruzzi Province, where for more than three centuries maiolica was manufactured, which could compete with the products of famous Italian manufacturers and stylistically always worthy of its era. The Castelli maiolica pottery from the State Hermitage Museum Collection gives us the possibility of tracing the fundamental stages of development of this unusual centre for the production of pottery in the 16th-18th centuries. The exhibition presents 77 works, including those of the prominent Castelli masters: Pompeo de Bernamonte, Orazio Pompei, Francesco and Carlantonio Grue, Francesco Antonio Grue, Nicola Cappelletti, Carmine Gentile. The State Hermitage Museum’s maiolica collection has been built up over two hundred years. Already by 1846 the Hermitage’s inventories mention four maiolica items, however, the basis of the collection consisting of 27 items which were among those brought to the State Hermitage Museum in 1920 from the M.P. Botkin’s collection. The collection also includes works from the collections of the Shuvalov family, A.L. Stieglitz, À.K. Rudanovsky, and the Academy of Arts Museum. The exhibition includes almost all of the most interesting and artistic types of frescoe used in Castelli in the 16th-18th centuries. Changing over the course of time, the regional style remained an unchanging part of its originality. The primaeval brightness of the paints and the improvised frescoes characterize 16th century pottery. The Orsini-Colonna ceramics, in particular, stand out: pharmaceutical vases, pitchers, plates, and frescoes which stun the viewer with the fantastical originality of the images. These works left researchers bewildered and gave them recollections of early German engravings or the late gothic. The current group of maiolica pottery is related by typology to vases at the British Museum, where a bear, the symbol of the Orsini family embraces a column, the symbol of the Colonna family. A remarkable archaeological discovery as part of excavations in Castelli led by Claudio de Pompeis during the 1980s, enabled us to determine that Orsini-Colonna was the centre for maiolica pottery. In identifying the locations of its manufacture images from the ceiling of the Church of San Donato in Castelli painted in the 16th century by the same artisans as those who painted the frescoes on the Orsini-Colonna ceramics played an important role. The majority of the masters belonged to the Pompei family. Their pottery can be distinguished since they cover almost the entire surface of the pottery with frescoes, with medicinal names specifying the medicine being stored in the vessel. The items often depict saints, heroes from Roman history, bust portraits of men and women. Later a new style was developed in Castelli, with a style more similar to water colour in their tonality. The range of depicted scenes becomes richer with depictions of daily country life and subtly executed landscapes, usually with ancient ruins. From colourful renaissance maiolica, the pottery from this centre dating to the 17th and 18th centuries is distinguished by its pale colours, which despite some fading, creates a harmonious impression. The most important achievements among the Castelli potters belong to Carlantonio Grue (1655-1723), which in terms of the freedom, skill and creative approaches for the imagery lifted historical maiolica frescoes executed in the baroque to an unprecedented level. The State Hermitage Museum Collection has nine works by this eminent master. The exhibition also displays 15 works by Carmine Gentile (1678-1763), often exhibited in the State Hermitage Museum’s collection. Among his works are the two examples of maiolica pottery which have been signed: a dish Ceres and Proserpine and a small plate Bacchus and Ariadne. The exposition Castelli Ceramics 16th-18th centuries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection is being opened following a successful tour of Italian cities (Rome, Castelli and Teramo). A scientific, illustrated catalogue has been prepared for the exhibition. The exhibition curator and author of the catalogue is Elena Nikolaevna Ivanova, a senior scientific researcher from the Department of Western European Applied Art, and a doctor of art history. |
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