Art of Ceramics

In-depth studies and archaeological researches conducted on its territory show that the history of Collesano ceramics has very ancient roots.

Numerous finds have been made on Monte d'Oro, an ancient inhabited site not far from the current urban center, which testify how the figulina practice has been active since the seventh century BC. The Greek etymology of the Ciaramitaro district, from keramos that is ceramic, confirms the exploitation of clay in that area already during the Hellenic age.

The first data for the medieval era came to light following tests carried out in the same locality on the ruins of the Arab-Norman center. From the reports of the excavation it emerges that they were found "fragments of pottery decorated with brown and green motifs and covered with transparent glass", as well as "basins, bowls, oil lamps coated with green glazing".

For the following centuries, from the sixteenth century onwards, archival research became the primary source for reconstructing the history of the art of stationary collesanese.

The oldest document in this sense is dated to 1567 and certifies the birth of the stazzoni in the Madonite city. Some remains of furnaces, which represent the heart of ceramic production, all located near Borgo Stazzone. The name of the village underlines the very strong characterization of the site in this sense. It is attested, with a document contracted at the end of 1585, that the Bovitello quarry supplied the raw material and it is from it that material will continue to be obtained until the second half of the twentieth century. What made the clay extracted from this mine special was its dark color and for this reason called nigra, also to distinguish it from the white one quarried from other places, which will begin to be worked by the Collesanese stazzoni from the end of the sixteenth century onwards.

From archival documentation i Cellino they are indicated as the family that gave the greatest impetus to diversification in the production of tin-plated ceramics.

 

The seventeenth century is undoubtedly the century that most marked the artistic production of Collesano ceramics, representing its moment of maximum splendor. This century was characterized by the spread of the production of majolica tiles with "to sea wave"and "diamond point".

 

In the eighteenth century, in addition to continuing the production of majolica, the production of aromatherapy tableware was established, strongly characterized and recognizable.

Eighteenth-century majolica began to be used to decorate churches, such as, for example, those used to adorn the right spire of the church of S. Maria di Loreto in Petralia Soprana or the 1769 devotional panel depicting the image of the Immaculate Aurelata from twelve stars. This is made up of twelve tiles with the inscription "Long live the Immacular Conception”Place, still today, in the historic center of Collesano.

The local pottery begins to come out of the Madonite territory and spread to the shops and markets of Palermo. In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the Collesanese ceramics experienced a moment of renewal thanks to the impulses coming from the masters Savia and Rizzuto who will transmit the knowledge of this art to other centers, known for the production of ceramics, such as Burgio, Caltagirone and Trapani.