"Alchimia Ginori. Arte e tecnica in manifattura"

Through a wide selection of works and artifacts from the Museo Ginori, curators Oliva Rucellai and Rita Balleri stage the dialectic between creativity and the limits imposed by the material, between aesthetic research and scientific progress, between tradition and the changing tastes of buyers. 

“Often, behind the colour of a background or a particular shape that today seem obvious to us – says Oliva Rucellai, chief curator of the Museo Ginori – there are discoveries, inventions, research, and failures of which we are unaware. This exhibition is an invitation to read the history of the Ginori factory also through these achievements”.

The story begins in the first half of the eighteenth century, when Carlo Ginori, passionate about chemistry, founded the eponymous factory and personally dedicated himself to researching the recipe for porcelain.

The path then unfolds in different sections dedicated to porcelain sculptures; the progressive enrichment of pictorial decoration and the colour palette; the innovations of Carlo Leopoldo Ginori (inventor of the four-tier kiln), Giusto Giusti (the manufactory’s chemist who rediscovered the recipe for the lustro of ancient Renaissance maiolica) and the first artistic directors of the factory.

The exhibition closes with Ginori’s transition to a true industry and a glance towards the twentieth century, when the newly born Richard-Ginori would base much of its prosperity on the production of electrotechnical porcelains, usually not exhibited in museum contexts.

With this exhibition, M.I.C once again pays tribute to the richness of the collections of the Museo Ginori (currently closed to the public due to renovation works at its Sesto Fiorentino headquarters), in continuity with the collaboration started on the occasion of the exhibition Gio Ponti – Ceramics, hosted in Faenza from March 17 to October 13, 2024.