Guests say they resemble Portuguese azulejo tiles. To some they remind Provence or Sicily. But the truth is another. A tour of the Museum of Santa Caterina (Treviso) it gave us a curiosity and in looking for the fathers of these coverings we ended up at Ceramics Museum of Faenza where we found our own tiles. But let's go in order.

Giretto al St Catherine's Museum of Treviso where, between culture and popular traditions, we find a stand dedicated to The Painted City of Treviso, from the homonymous in-depth study of the decorations in Treviso over the period from the 13th to the 21st century. The accompanying text reads : ” The same taste manifests itself in the exteriors of the Treviso buildings, he also expressed himself in the interiors with the application of colors and decorations on every wall or wooden surface available, from floor to ceiling”.

At the museum and in the kitchen

Even though we don't have frescoed surfaces, we enjoyed seeing the graphic similarities between the ancient Treviso wall decorations and the hand-painted tiles in our kitchen (produces. Seagulls).

Then a doubt: being that Gabbianelli (who his own story) it is a historical and particular brand, we got to the bottom of it by discovering that our tiles are present at the Ceramics Museum of Faenza and exactly who. Seagulls he collaborated with Giò Ponti, Enzo Mari, Italo Lupi e, udite udite, also with the young designers and planners of the villa Roberto Pamio and Renato Toso.

Let's start with the Treviso museum. Here are the pictures of the decorations.

The kitchen of the Villa. Details.

The big kitchen, flanked by a very useful kitchen sbratta where we find worktops and appliances, it is studded with jumbled tiles. Where a single tile repeated several times would have donated an order given by composure and repetitiveness, here some lucid madness – which also peeks out elsewhere in the villa – he gave the order to place them at random, creating an unsettling game and colors that are still current.

Gabbianelli catalogues. Circa early 70's

Thanks to Museum of Ceramics of Faenza, to the kind director Claudia Casali and the librarian Marcela Kubovova we went back to the series ‘ Hand decorated‘ by Gabbianelli that covers our kitchen. The series remained in production for about a decade. In the 'sbratta kitchen’ instead we have the series ‘cabochon‘ designed by Renato Toso in 1973 (Studio Pamio-Toso) also decorated by hand and in which opposite angles of the same color on square tiles led to combinations (quasi) infinite. In the following images the original catalogues Seagulls. (click on the images to enlarge)

What to say? A beautiful adventure 'coated’ (it is appropriate to say) of pleasant surprises. Historical courses and appeals.

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