The Castelli majolica
An historycal and artistic synthesis

The spread of Castelli's great fame in the 16th century is attested to by Antonio Bueter, who, in his book, Cronica generale di Spagna (General Chronicle of Spain), when talking about some famous Moorish majolica production, wrote: "According to Pliny, Corebo, the inventor of working clay, whilst in Athens, did not make them any better neither were they any more valuable than those of Corinth or Pisa, nor those of Castelli of the Valle Siciliana d'Abruzzo or anywhere else, neither were they more beautiful or better crafted".
That must have been the case if the Aragona, Orsini, Farnese and other noble families of the day commissioned their everyday and most elegant dinner services from the Castelli ceramists. At least eleven families collaborated together with numerous workers at Castelli. The richest and most important of these was the Pompei family, creators of the famous "Orsini-Colonna" collection commissioned to celebrate peace made between the two farmilies. They also created part of the "Farnese tableware" with the famous "turchine" in gold. One should not, however, imagine, as romantics would, dark workshops with a solitary figure, the master craftsmen, intent on his masterpiece. On the contrary, these were authentic industries organized into sections and outbuildings from the search for clay, wood and other materials to the kneading, lathing and the first baking, finishing with the painting, which was only started off by the master craftsman to then be reproduced by his helpers. The final baking then established the colours and lastly carne the glaze. It was, therefore, a whole series of craftsmanship which required quite different but highly specialised skilled workers supervised by the master craftsman himself. Together with the production there was the commercial side which was controlled by different members of the family. They supervised all the operations necessary to participate in fairs and markets, both nearby and far away, organizing the loads, hampers and mules used for transportation as well as the equipment needed for the journey.

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