The Frantoio olive oil recipient emerges as contemporary adaptation of the identity and manufacturing processes of yesterday’s and today’s ceramists of Ascoli Piceno (Italy).
After visiting Museo dell’arte Ceramica and interviewing the most known ceramists of the area, we noted that the maiolica is an historical characteristic that defines the style of ceramics in both Ascoli Piceno and Italy. The peculiarity of this pictorical technique appears when, after the enamelling, the decoration of the artefacts is carried out. The fusion of the colors will take place in the kiln and will lead to the finished product. The maiolica is applied on red earth or white clay, then it is fired at a lower temperature and is also more fragile and less resistant than porcelain.
Looking at the artefacts reproduced with this peculiar characteristic, it was evident a complexity of painting, always very elaborate, precise, but impressionist. This complexity almost never appeared in the morphology of the artefacts.
The ornament is usually painted rather than shaped in Ascoli Piceno’s ceramics. In these ornaments abound different stories such as religious scenes and fantastic scenes, but above all the representation of farmers, nature and the landscape. Frantoio translates this pictorial complexity into a sculptural complexity by traducing physically the most significant stories represented on this paintings.
Admiring the agriculture of Ascoli by understanding the harvest of the most typical dish of the city -fried olives-, we visited the plantations and observed the expressiveness of the olive tree's growth over the centuries.
We focused on the most typical olive tree of the zone: Frantoio. Among the characteristics of the Frantoio, the most shocking for us is the way the tree grows and breaks at the same time over the years. This story appears in the olive oil recipients by portraying the growth of the plant exalting the breakage.
