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# 72 •nOvemBER 16 , 2015
Until a few decades ago,
only a few examples of
sixteenth-century Castelli majolica were known
to have survived, mainly
attributed to the Pompeii
family, whose best well-known ceramic artist was
Orazio (ca. 1507-1588/9).
His house is also well-known, due to the inscription on the lintel of a window: “Haec domus east
Oratii figuli 1562” (“This
is the home of Orazio the
a blue background, the
Potter 1562”).
largest section of which is
Thanks to archaeological exhibited in the Capodiexcavations
conducted monte Museum.
in a small ravine between Some of the most interethe house of Orazio Pom- sting monuments to visit
peii and a nearby preci- in Castelli are part of its
seventeenth-cenpice, it has been possible early
to document a hitherto tury production. The most
unknown medieval pro- important of these is cerduction of engobed sgraf- tainly the rural Church of
fito ceramics and attribu- San Donato, located just
te the production of the above the village and deprestigious Orsini-Colon- scribed by Carlo Levi as
na pharmaceutical col- the “Majolica Sistine Chalection, housed in the Bri- pel”.
tish Museum in London, to
the craftsmen of Castelli. It
was also possible to attribute Castelli with the creation of sumptuous Farnese tableware, featuring
the coat of arms of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese
in gold and white against
The church’s ceiling, unique in Italy, is composed of about eight hundred majolica tiles, made
between 1615 and 1617
by all the inhabitants of
Castelli for devotional reasons and with great fre-
edom of inspiration. This
monumental ceiling is
painted in the “compendiario” style, a decoration
with simple motifs on a
white background, which
became prominent from
the second half of the sixteenth century to the first
decades of the seventeenth century as a reaction
to the bright tones of the
Renaissance.
However, Castelli owes its
fame to its Baroque productions, which elevated
it to the pinnacle of global majolica production
from the mid-seventeenth
century until the early nineteenth century. Towards
the end of the first half of
the seventeenth century,
the potters of Castelli revi-
WE THE ITALIANS | 41
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