Italian Ceramics
Hand painted italian ceramics from deruta by great artist Master Boccini.
Deruta: Landscape
Being located on a soft hill - overhung by woods – Deruta offers a wide view allowing your eyes to sweep the whole valley: from Mount Peglia to Perugia, from the Tiber plain to the opposite hills. Close by the ancient boundary walls, you will find the oldest village, from there if you climb across three city gates of the ancient defence system you will have access to the historical heart of the city. There , the civic towers and the church tower of St.Francesco stand out, overhanging the rectangular-shaped square, with a beautiful fountain.During the Fifties the new part of the city developed along the ancient street Via Tiberina, thus creating many handicraft workshops for the manufacturing of artistic majolica. As a matter of fact, the activity of the most part of the 7600 inhabitants of Deruta, located 15 km far from Perugia and 150 km far from Rome, is linked to this well known production.

Deruta: Via Tiberina (1930)
Deruta identifies itself with the manufacturing of artistic majolica. The most ancient evidence regarding this expression of art dates back to 12 August 1290, and testifies a payment “in kind” against “unam saumam vasorum”.That was the archaic period during which objects of common usage were manufactured: beakers, basins, bowls, “panate”, meagrely decorated, mainly with geometric and animal patterns. The prevailing colours are green “ramina” and manganese brown . during the subsequent centuries majolicas from Deruta reached the highest splendour and expanded in the Sixteenth Century in the main marketplaces, not only the Italian ones. Artists such as Giacomo Mancini (“El Frate” that is “The Friar”) and Francesco Urbini realized works of of prominence. Display plates, amatory chalices, straw-botiomed chalices, nobiliary armorial bearings show a range of patterns with female characters, mythological scenes, battles and Holy images. There are other several, different and original patterns, popular in that period: floral, zoomorphous. Grotesque, floral curls, peacock's-feather's eye, crown-of-thorns, wolf-tooth and petal-back like imbrications. In the meantime the range of colours became richer, and added the orange, the blue and the yellow. The technique of metallic lustre, characterized by splendid golden reflections, began to appear in the most valued works. The first “lustre” piece, ascribed to Deruta, dates back to 1501 and it is a bas-relief representing the martyr of Saint Sebastiano, it is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London. Floors, such as the floor of the Church of St. Francesco in Deruta, of St. Maria Maggiore in Spello or of the Sacristy of St. Pietro in Perugia, are further evidences of the best Deruta majolica production. In the course of times, the style and the decorative patterns have turned into the  “epitomized” style, consisting of quick strokes, and the “calligrafico” (minutely-finished) style, of Moorish inspiration, consisting of twisting of flowers, leaves, arabesques, birds and other animals. In the XVIII century there was a period of crisis during which – nevertheless – a reaction was represented by Gregorio Caselli, who established a factory of fine majolica, in imitation of porcelain, in Deruta. After the Unity of Italy a meaningful recovery was especially due to the activity of Angelo Micheletti, Alpinolo Magnini, Davide Zipirovic, whilst Ubaldo Grazia becomes well known for his “talent in copying” In the present days the high level of artistic production is to be found by visiting the “living museum” stretching across the streets of Deruta, made of workshops, laboratories, factories, show rooms, where you can attend freely to the various steps of the production process. That is a reality to be found in the territory, as well, such as Ripabianca, known for the manufacturing of vases, oil jars,  pitchers and pottery jugs.
Deruta: il Borgo
 
If you enter the historical centre of Deruta across Porta St. Michele Arcangelo you will immediately find visible evidences of ancient factory bricks, the first one is nowadays out of use, whilst as to the subsequent ones, one dates back to the Sixteenth Century and it is perfectly preserved, the other could be activated in any time. The little square Biordo Michelotti is overhung by the sober Romanesque-Gothic lines of the church of St. Arcangelo, no longer destined to the cult, with the facade adorned by decorative tiles. Opposite there is the Fountain with polygonal plant, realized by the quinquevirs of the City in 1848. After that you reach the Square of Consoli bordered by modern buildings, which are adorned with majolica plates and tiles , and by the Palazzetto Municipale, dating back to 1300, with portals and mullion windows with two lights. In the entrance hall archaeological finds - both Neolithic and Etrurian - are collected, together with fragments of epigraphs, terracotta jars, sculptures and capitals. Moreover, the palace accomodates the Picture Gallery (Pinacoteca) and the Museum of the Ceramics. The Gallery exhibites important collection of paintings coming from the Churches of St. Francisco, St. Antonio, of the Defuncts and from the Hospital of St. Giacomo. The most interesting nucleus is to be found in a part of the rich collection of Lione Pascoli. Other noteworthy works can be admired, among the others, such as: the Alunno’s paintings, the Baciccio’s , the Stendardo’s, the Amorosi’s, the Fiorenzo di Lorenzo’s as well as a painting by Guido Reni. Some precious documents of the archives – regarding the history of Deruta, are reserved In the room of the Tower. The most valued volume is the Missale frairum minorupi of the XIII century. A majolica, of big size, work of Zipirovie, reproducing Raffaello’s Wedding of the Holy Virgin, is currently preserved in the room of the Junta. In the Museum of the Ceramics, the visitor can admire amatory goblets, bread soup bowls, umbilicate trays, albarelli and holy water fonts, dated back to the period from the archaic to the present time. Opposite the Municipal Palace there is the church of St. Francisco, in gothic style, consecrated in the 1388. Of remarkable interest the inside, as well as the bell towers, that with the civic tower, overhang the public square thus characterizing Deruta even from big distances.Contiguous to the church, there is the former Franciscan convent with the ancient cloister. At the end of the narrow street Via Mastro Giorgio the church of St. Antonio stands out, meaningful frescoes by Bartolomeo and Gian Battista Caporali are preserved in it. A little further, a wide view on the plain of Tiber River and on the bordering hills sweeps away. The lower part of the historical center is the Valle, old popular quarter, whose street axis, Via Maturanzio, joins the Porta Perugina to the Porta del Borgo. When you get to the square Piazza Cavour you can see the small Church of the Madonna Del Divino Amore, today known under the name of Madonna della Cerasa. When you go ahead you will find the remainings of the hospital of St. Giacomo, instituted in 1414, but whose origin is more ancient. It was already located in the Village near the Church of S. Anna, probably dating back to the Middle Age. The Church of St. Anna (a private property) preserves a painting reproducing St. Anna, St. Gioacchino and the Holy Virgin (1744). Along the road Via Tiberina you run across the small Church of Madonna delle Piagge (1601) ,whose facade, is decorated by beautiful majolica patterns, whilst inside you can admire a fresco representing the Holy Virgin with the Child, work of a local late mannerist artist.

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... fine hand painted Italian Ceramics from Deruta ...
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Deruta: Centre
The town is located 15 kilometres south of Perugia on a mount dominating the Tiber Valley at the foot of a range of hills covered in thick Mediterranean vegetation. The new part of the town extends along the Tiberina Way, parallel to the E45 state highway to Rome. The Commune numbers about 8.180 inhabitants (2005)
The name and the origin of Deruta remain a mystery, although some information can be deduced from archaeological finds dating to the Etruscan and Roman eras, between the 4th century BC and the 4TH century AD, some of which are exhibited in the atrium of the Town All. One thing is certain: diruta means ruined, destroyed (as do the other variants: Ruta, Rupta, Direpta).
In the middle Ages, Deruta was a castle subject to Perugia, governed by a representative from Perugia as well as by four boni hominess (leading figures) elected from among Deruta’s own inhabitants. From at least the 14th century AD it possessed it’s own constitution, drawn up in Latin as was the custom, though we know of 1465 version in vulgar Italian. At the time the city was exhausted as a result of continuous plagues which had led to a marked decrease in population and even to a reduction of the town walls. Between the 15th and 16th centuries it was repeatedly ravaged and sacked, first under the seigniory of Giangaleazzo Visconti, then under that of Braccio da montone and finally under the seigniory of the Baglioni family. In 1540, at the time of the “salt war”, it allied itself with the Papal State which, after quelling the revolt in Perugia, secured for Deruta a period of relative peace.