The Italian Job
The Italian Job
Defining difference between art and craft is beyond the scope of this column but I have a quick observation to make; that the line between art and craft is blurred and that this distinction, in the eyes of an Italian, is completely artificial. Many of the great works of “art” realised during the Renaissance were done by artisans. Michelangelo started his career apprenticed to an studio learning the application of the technique of painting, and the Florence guilds made up of craftsmen controlled a substantial slice of the economy.
500 years later Italy’s artisans still make up 10% of Italy’s GDP and their work is valued at home and throughout the world. In Tuscany alone there are paper makers, basket weavers, potters, glass blowers, blacksmiths, carpenters and a whole host of professions that more than likely have been in the family for generations.
In spite of the Miracolo Italiano of the 1960s – 70s during which Italy dragged itself from pre-industrial poverty into the G7, the country has retained her fair share of artisans – crafts people whose work and knowledge continue to resist the forces of mass production and globalisation and who may well be the salvation of this central European nation in the 21st Century. To be honest I envy them a bit, spending their days fashioning beautiful objects, from violins, to hand-blown Murano glass chandeliers, colourful Majolica ceramic tiles, or hand made terracotta tiles, instead of being parked in front of a computer like me.
I extend the definition of art to the sausages of my local butcher Giacomo, who quite unpretentiously supplies us with the very best cured and fresh meats, just as his father and grandfather have done. My local chocolate maker is world famous for his 75% cacao “cru”, my brother-in-law makes hand stitched sofas, and one of my best friends (who is Swedish) spends the best part of her day applying gold leaf to artifacts with a technique she came to Italy to learn.
None of the above can claim the genius of Michelangelo but their products are made with care and attention that Michelangelo would surely have appreciated, in the style for which we Italians are known throughout the world. felix