There are so many places of interest on one’s journey from Lucca to Florence! Could one dare to miss them on the way to the birthplace of the Renaissance? I’ve mentioned some of these places in my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/04/02/make-it-an-interesting-journey-from-bdl-to-florence/ which includes a description of that picturesque Arno valley gorge known as ‘La Gonfalina’.
Quite apart from the major towns of Prato and Pistoia, so full of some of the country’s finest cultural and artistic heritage, there are the smaller centres of San Miniato al Tedesco (made famous by the Taviani brothers’ film ‘La Notte di San Lorenzo’), Empoli with composer Busoni’s house (see my post at https://longoio3.com/2023/04/29/empathic-empoli/), Vinci, the birthplace of that greatest of universal men, Leonardo, (see my post athttps://longoio3.com/2019/05/24/where-leonardo-da-vinci-was-born/ ), Ponte a Cappiano, the centre of Tuscany’s old canal system (see my post at https://longoio3.com/2020/09/16/ponte-a-cappianos-canal/) and many other exquisite places.
In mediaeval times meals would be served on wooden boards called ‘tagliere’. Indeed, they still serve that way for snacks consisting of cheese, olives and salami in local bars and restaurants. However, crockery changed all that in the fifteenth century and potteries sprang up to supply plates for the new fashion in presenting one’s meals.
Among these places is Montelupo, between Signa and Empoli. It reached its apex of production in the sixteenth century and, although somewhat less industrious today, remains notable for its fine production which would turn any kitchen into a mini art gallery.
Towards the end of the last century archaeological investigations there led to the discovery of a large pit into which broken or discarded pots were thrown. These have been examined, classified and restored. A selection of them form the Montelupo ceramics museum.
We first visited this museum in 1994 when it was combined with the town’s archaeological museum in an old palace. Our photos dating from that year also show samples from local ceramic workshops.
Since 2005 the two museums have been separated with the archeological museum moved to the former asylum for the criminally insane housed in the Medicean villa called the Ambrogiana and the ceramic museum rearranged in the old secondary school. (I do not know where the criminally insane have been moved to).
The Ceramics Museum of Montelupo Fiorentino, presents on two floors a collection of ceramic works ranging from the 14th to the 18th century . Both floors offer a chronological reconstruction of the history of ceramic art and a path for the blind with tactile tiles and captions in the Braille alphabet. The eight rooms deal with specific themes such as medieval and Renaissance cellars and kitchen, the potter’s workshop, collecting, exports, clients, health and wellbeing. There’s s section dealing with the pharmacy and there’s an animal-and-flower-design themed room.
Among the most prestigious finds there’s the famous “Rosso di Montelupo”, a majolica basin decorated with grotesques, dated 1509 and signed on the back with the mark LO which means that it came from the workshop of Lorenzo Pietro Sartori. This wonderful plate, which is named after the rare red pigment used in it, was once owned by the Rothschilds and was added to the museum in 2002 after an auction bid of Euro180,000.
The museum is equipped with interactive activities and deepens one’s knowledge of ancient manufacturing traditions. Workshops and educational activities are also organized for children and adults. It’s indeed what a museum should be: not a musty collection of artefacts for learned hacks but one open to all ages and where knowledge can be acquired in a spirit of discovery.
Here are some of the wonderful plates we viewed. I wish we had a few if them in our kitchen..they would wake me up for breakfast ..or at any time!
