Museum of Ceramics
Via Roma Tel. 093358418 The Caltagirone Ceramics Museum collects finds of ceramics made in Sicily starting from prehistoric times. The Museum exhibits a vast collection of ceramics, about 2.500 artifacts, which provide the visitor with a broad vision of the history of ceramic art from the fourth millennium BC at the contemporary age [1]. It is second only to the Museum of Faenza as regards the documentation of ceramic art. The Museum is divided into seven sections: Teaching room: offers an overview of ceramic production from prehistoric times to the present day. Of relief is a crater of the XNUMXth century BC, decorated with red figures, which depicts the workshop of a potter at work under the protection of the goddess Athena which was found inside a furnace active in Caltagirone in the Greek age. Prehistoric, protohistoric, Greek, Siceliot and Byzantine ceramics. The room exhibits many Aeneolithic artifacts from Sant'Ippolito, such as the mystical vase and the flask, from the districts Angelo, Moschitta, Balchino and from places beyond the Salso. Also visible is the large tomb from the XNUMXth century BC. C. found in via Escuriales and the limestone grave cover with landed sphinxes and a relief funeral dance scene, found in the necropolis of Monte San Mauro, from the XNUMXth century BC. There are also exhibited Greek pottery with black and red figures, Hellenistic terracotta and Roman glass from the Russo-Perez collection. Patio reserved for models of medieval ovens. You can see the scale reproductions of two of the four medieval furnaces found in 1960 in Agrigento (models by prof. Antoninus Ragona). The first furnace is from the Arab period, the second from the Angevin-Aragonese period. Medieval pottery. In the room are exhibited Sicilian-Arab ceramics from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Among the oldest well-documented ones found in Ortigia, in the area of the Temple of Apollo, where there were kilns for ceramic production in the Middle Ages. Note: a bowl from the XNUMXth century, with lead glazing and decoration painted in yellow, green and brown; bowls in proto-majolica decorated in brown and green or in polychrome from the thirteenth century, and a third group decorated in brown from the fourteenth century; and then jugs, amphorae and mugs. The jugs are equipped with a particular filter at the neck connection, perhaps due to the impurities of the water from the wells. In the finds from the XNUMXth century onwards, the glazing of the ceramic coating becomes brighter and more full-bodied, taking on the characteristics of the glaze. From this century they are called majolica. From this period are bowls decorated in monochrome in blue with phytomorphic motifs, plates decorated in blue and luster with floral motifs. Renaissance ceramics. Majolicas are exhibited for the canteen or for the preservation of food and decorated in blue, blue and green or blue and yellow, mainly produced in Caltagirone; cups and bowls with vegetal and floral motifs and numerous XNUMXth century majolica. San Giacomo, patron saint of the city Baroque ceramics. There are sacristy amphorae and holy water stoups with plastic applications, from the XNUMXth century with plant and animal subjects and small figures of saints. Large room with an overview of all Sicilian majolica from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. In the showcases there are precious vases, albarelli, cylinders depicting angels, saints, coats of arms and female profiles. Precious anthropomorphic and majolica lamps with turquoise blue enamel decorations. In addition, majolica floors, large ornamental majolica vases and glazed door tags. And original XNUMXth century majolica hand warmers in the shape of a fish or turtle. Finally, designer ceramics, including the eighteenth-century terracotta by Giacomo Bongiovanni (1772-1859): the Nativity, the Cobbler's Workshop, the Bagpiper and the Blind Players. The crib by Giuseppe Vaccaro Bongiovanni and the terracotta group depicting a quarrel between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. Other figurative groups by Giuseppe Vaccaro and Giuseppe Failla complete the exhibition, in particular the work depicting St. James the Greater Apostle.
Card insertion: Ignatius Caloggero
Photo: Ignazio Caloggero
Information contributions: Ignazio Caloggero, Web
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