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Ceramics

  • The regal figure of the warrior on horseback, in ceramic, enamelled so as to create fine chromatic effects and iridescent gold shine, distinctive of Franco Scassellati’s production, is inspired by the archaic Nuragic culture rendered with a dynamic style.

  • Richly decorated, this exquisite bride’s jug is crafted by this ceramist with technical virtuosity, faithfully evoking the decorative iconography reproduced by her Assemini-born father, Efisio Usai, keeper of a ceramist family tradition.

  • It diffuses the light through its precious glazed ceramic carvings and decorated with colourful marine motifs in blue on a white field.

  • The comely shape of this ceramic vase reveals feminine elements that typically characterise the fascinating and enigmatic Sardinian women. This vase is part of a varied line of home décor items, Donna Bistimenta, featuring the exclusive design of this original ceramist.

  • Black lathe-crafted ceramic pots, hand-decorated with alternating graphic motifs etched and impressed. The Pintadera collection is named after a decorative bread stamp, anciently used in Sardinia in ritual contexts as a lucky charm.

Il settore

Local pottery production started during the Neolithic age, featuring peculiar characteristics that evolved during the Nuragic age. Neolithic pottery productions explored the female body, rounded also in pottery production, being a representation of the Mother goddess. Nuragic pottery featured simple and stylized designs, a tribute to the strength of war.
 
In the following ages, the regular exchange of imported pottery, linked to the interaction of different cultures with Sardinia, made it difficult to define what local production really was, since production became a self-sufficient expression of modern age, only when stylistic features and technical procedures were define and kept unchanged until recent times.
 
For instance, terracotta was slipped and glazed. Few and functional models were lathe-crafted: pitchers, marigas, containers, sciveddas, pans, pingiadas, flasks, frascus, bowls, discus, and other types of pots and pouring receptacles.
 
The setting is rural and pastoral. They are objects of daily use, for the transportation and and storage of water, baking, the preparation of desserts and food products. Yet, embellishments and expressive characterizations are also used. The festive versions are used during solemn occasions, anniversaries, rituals, and are part of the set of votive tools. They are made by the most skilled figuli, using graphite and decorated with plastic additions, plant motifs and the figures of saints and other religious and good-luck symbols.
 
 
These productions that belong to the local material culture, together with the productions of other sectors such as hand-made weaving, jewelry, carving and basket weaving, share a secret language, and intimate and evocative jargon.