Meniconi-Dolgorouki Wedding Gift made in Deruta, Italy (PART II)

Wedding plate coming from the Ceramic Museum 
of Deruta, Italy

In 2016 one of our ceramologists from Deruta, Mr. Giulio Busti, led a lecture about Deruta Renaissance ceramics.  The event was organized by the local Unesco association downtown Perugia. 

A favorite ceramic plate of mine was on the event's poster. So that day I drove to Perugia to Busti's lecture. 

Besides additional information about the Meniconi-Dolgorouki wedding plate, I have learned several interesting curiosities about my town, Deruta, that I wish to share with you:

1. Deruta ceramics can be admired in 80 different museums in the world;

2. After the plagues immigrants were invited to come and live in Deruta. They were encouraged by the fact that their work would have state tax free for 40 years to follow;

3. It's towards the 1400s that human profiles are being added to the ceramic paintings;

4. The luster technique in Italy was part of the heritage of the towns of Deruta and Gubbio only. If the luster technique was in usage in some other parts of Italy it was only a rare example and much weaker than these two ceramic towns;

5. Deruta ceramicists were very attentive to events that happened in Perugia. Indeed Deruta was a castle belonging to the noble Baglioni family from Perugia. Works of art were created to remember events such as the 'Bloody Wedding' of July 14th, 1501 represented by a ceramic St. Sebastian;

6. Deruta ceramicists were familiar with the artist Perugino who was in Deruta 1476 to paint the ex-voto with which the Derutese were thanking Allmighty God and antipestiferous saints St. Rock and St. Roman for the end of the plague.

Additionally, Mr. Busti's lecture was divided into two parts. The first part was about the Renaissance ceramic tradition in Deruta. It was meant to introduce artist, scholar, genius loci Alpinolo Magnini (1877-1952) who made a change in Deruta by reviving the ceramic Renaissance tradition, which had been swept away by the Industrial Revolution. For this reason, I think it is very interesting to go back to my favorite plate that Alpinolo Magnini painted in 1903 for Mr. and Mrs. Luigi Andreoli, the plate used on the event's poster. Mr. and Mrs. Luigi Andreoli had ordered this ceramic plate as a wedding gift for count Meniconi Bracceschi who was getting married to Russian princess Dolgorouki on September 15th, 1903. Miss Dolgorouki is said to be the niece of the Tzar of Russia. This piece of information I have learned at the lecture besides the fact that Mrs. Andreoli's maiden name was Vanna Briganti. The Briganti family is one of the most important families of Deruta and now I wish to double check if they are related to the Magninis.

The history of Deruta and its artistic influences in Assisi and Rome

Store ceramic sign in Assisi dated 1923. 

The history of Deruta is much related both to Assisi and Rome for different reasons.

First of all the latest discovery about the Deruta ceramic tradition is a document stating that the first ceramics delivery was to a convent in Assisi in 1282 (water and wine pitchers).

Secondly, Assisi has always been one of the best shop windows for Deruta ceramics. Stores in Assisi have been floridly filled with Deruta ceramics for decades, setting the trend for souvenir shopping.

Rome was more inspiring to Deruta from the point of view of the art itself. When we think of Rome and Deruta ceramics, we think of the Vatican rooms painted by Raphael with classical grotesques and of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The ceramic art tradition of Deruta reached its best expression in the Renaissance period because it was inspired by great Renaissance artists.

Milan and Perugia were other Deruta shopping towns. In the 1920s major Deruta workshops opened here their own stores there. Indeed the 1920s were a second Renaissance period for arts & crafts in Europe. They were a moment of glory especially for Deruta, whose path towards a ceramic art revival had started at the end of the 1800s. 

Within this time frame, we would like to remember the guest artist David Zipirovic (Kherson, Ukraine 1885- Moscau, Russia 1946), who worked in Deruta between 1923 and 1927. He accepted the invitation of the factory "Società Anonima Maioliche Deruta" and greatly contributed to bringing back the Renaissance ceramic tradition in Deruta. David Zipirovic was specialized in the ceramic reproduction of works of art of the most important Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, Raffaello, Pinturicchio, Perugino. David Zipirovic had learned the Renaissance painting techniques as a student at the Academy of Beaux-Arts in Paris and as an art grant holder in Rome.

David Zipirovic widely encouraged the tradition of the so-called "tracing paper" on ceramics,  a technique that was in use in the Renaissance period to transfer the works of art from paper to the walls. As a curiosity, upon restoration of the Sistine Chapel in the years 1980-1994 close-ups of the frescoes showed the use of nails to trace the outline of the scenes upon application of cardboards. In Deruta nails were replaced by needles and cardboards were replaced by tissue papers. 

example of a tracing paper from Deruta, Italy - dots allow the charcoal to leave a trace on the
ceramic surface by using a pouch. The best painters will do the outline with the finest brushes. Charcoal is not fire-resistant, this is why it is necessary to outline the dot lines by the use of water paints. Michelangelo used this technique in Rome in the Sistine Chapel.

Mr. David Zipirovic was very well welcomed in Deruta and had many followers. One of his best pupils born in Deruta was Mr. Cesare Teobaldo Pimpinelli (Deruta, Italy 1909 - Gualdo Tadino, Italy 1991). Cama Deruta was proud to have Mr. Cesare Teobaldo Pimpinelli as a guest artist early 1970s. He painted beautiful Renaissance collection plates - such as the herewith following example - which are now part of the private collection of the Renato and Elena Niccacci family, owners of Cama Deruta.

Reproduction of the Prophet Zachary from the Sistine Chapel, original by Michelangelo Buonarroti. By Cesare Teobaldo Pimpinelli, citizen of Deruta and pupil of David Zipirovic.

In 2000 a beautiful art book about David Zipirovic was published by Giulio Busti and Franco Cocchi: "David Zipirovic a Deruta. Maioliche 1923-1927" (tr."David Zipirovic in Deruta. Ceramic pieces from 1923 to 1927") published by  CENTRO DI della Edifini s.r.l. Florence. Also catalogue of the exhibition held in the same year at the one-time factory premises of the "Società Anonima Maioliche Deruta",  popularly known as "Fabbrica Grande" (tr. "the big factory"), which is nowadays the seat of Deruta middle school.

Cover of the book "David Zipirovic a Deruta. Maioliche 1923-1927" 

I did this research upon request of a Cama customer, Theresa J.,  who expressed the wish to know more about this subject.

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Original Posts by Roberta Niccacci -

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