Aspiring to write a few notes linking ancient Assisi artisan treasures to present artisan wonders, I decided that there would be no better place to start than right in the center of…
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In Deruta, a sacred spot of the Middle Ages holds sacred treasures. In this small Umbria hilltown, a 14th-century Franciscan monastery now houses the first ceramics museum of Italy – founded in…
We’re all so overwhelmed always by the innumerable art treasures ready to welcome us in magnificent churches, famous museums and in many a small chapel down side streets in medieval towns. But…
Deruta, an Umbria small hilltown south of Perugia….. …..is a veritable open-air museum peppered with maiolica touches in the piazzas, on the walls of homes, over shop entrances,in the backstreets and even…
In preparation for my ZOOM presentation May 8, 2021 on Deruta, I needed to see the Museo Regionale della Ceramica, but for now, that museum – like many – is closed due to COVID…
What’s absolutely essential to the production of bellissima glazed earthenware, maiolica? Passione. I very recently spoke to five young women in “la citta’ della ceramica,” Deruta – each one carefully masked – as they worked with painstaking…
Probably built upon Roman foundations and later devastated by the Goths in the 6th-century and later by the Lombards (6th-8th centuries), the ancient names of Deruta (Ruto, Ruta, Rupta, Direpta Diruta) all…
As you exit the upper level of the Basilica di San Francesco, one of the most important sacred and artistic sites in all of Italy, note the aperture in the 13th-century wall…
Yes, it IS grandiose the 16th-century Franciscan Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli rising up majestically on the plain below Assisi. At first site, one wonders about the reaction of St. Francis, Il…
In one of the twenty-eight late 13th-century frescoes in the Basilica Superiore di San Francesco recounting the life of St. Francis, San Francesco prays before a Byzantine crucifix in a rundown church…