In collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture
Under the aegis of the Embassy of Italy in Russia

Aptekarski Prikaz
October 11 — November 6 2005

In 2005 at the hall "Aptekarskiy Prikaz" of the Schusev State Museum of Architecture an exhibition "Golden Ages of Majolica" will be opened. The majolica pieces of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome covers a period from 13th to 18th centuries. The collection consists of the medieval ware from the Lazio area, fifteenth-century Tuscan items, crockery of 16th—18th c. from Faenza, Urbino, Naples and other centres. These pieces are little known by either the public or the experts because they have never been included in either temporary or permanent exhibitions. The objects are examples of decorative art of fine quality as well as being of great documentary value, frequently bearing dates and initials, heraldic motifs or unusual symbols. This is a substantial collection of majolica as regards both quantity and quality. It has been enlarged, above all, by remarkable donations from both people of modest means and from aristocratic collectors (among these we should mention the Prince Ladislao Odescalchi and Alessandro Castellani).

Several words about concrete exhibits should be said here. The 13th- and 14th-century jugs from the environments of Rome painted with restrained geometrical ornament are of special interest. The collection of early majolica works includes also pieces from the Veneto area (14th — 16th c.) decorated with knights and ladies engaged in courtly games and pursuits, monograms of Christ, a bleeding heart and cherubs. The many chemist's vases and jars from Faenza are adorned with the Gothic scrolls, or volutes as well as rosettes, blue-on-white designs imitating oriental porcelain and the fish-scale pattern. We should mention the early 16th-century shallow white majolica plate from Urbino portraying a mythological scene; the delicacy of tone and the fineness of decorative motifs was influenced by the Raphael School. There are some plates entirely painted with landscapes in the familiar dark and light blue typical of the 17th-century ware from Savona and Albisola. The collection includes a section of  laggione — majolica tiles used in Liguria during the 14th and 15th centuries to cover walls and  floors in stately houses. They portray a metre-high image of the Roman hero Scipio.  The 18th century is represented by the majolica pieces from Veneto decorated with the typical floral ponticello pattern. 

The multi-coloured tiles from Iznik — a famous Turkish centre of ceramics — date back to the 16th — 18th c. Hispano-Moresque ware is recorded by a series of plates, cups and vases the province Valencia. These items are adorned with the gilded work and images of animals, figures and inscriptions. Prince Baldassare Odescalchi donated in 1880 to the Galleria Nazionale his collection of 15th century azulefos — Islamic tiles with images of fabulous animals. 

The exihibition "Golden Ages of Majolica" is an initiative of the General Directorate for the Promotion and the Culture Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Soprintendenza ai Beni Artistici e Storici of Rome. It comes for the first time to those central and eastern European countries that have long standing cultural links with Italy. It continues a series of social activities that had been begun by the Venitian Glassware from the Renaissance to the 19th Century which was shown lately in Kiev, Moscow, Ankara, Sofia and Bucharest.

Russian version
press dossier