ALVARO BINAGLIA

 

Alvaro Binaglia is one of the best painters in Deruta, specializing in Renaissance portrait ceramics or “istoriato” pottery.
His source of inspiration are the 16th century majolicas, whose designs and characters enjoy a new life on his superb ornamental pottery. He is the winner of many awards from the Museum of Ceramics in Deruta.

Alvaro Binaglia is one of a kind.
He works completely alone, in a tiny, one window room containing a desk, a table, some book shelves and his kiln. His young daughters have their little desk beside his table and they sit there after school, doing their homework or just playing around, while he paints.

Watching him as he paints is fascinating.
His brushes are the thinnest we have ever seen.
He uses a limited number of colours, no more than 4 or 5, but he can take a million shades out of each of them. Have a look at a close up of one of his portraits and you’ll see what we mean.

He switches his kiln on only once a month because each one of his pieces takes many days of work. And he is so excited over the firing that he sometimes spends all the night up,
waiting for the moment he will be able to open the kiln and see the finished pieces…

Alvaro spent many years in a ceramic factory in Deruta, then he decided it was time to apply his talent to his favourite subjects, the Renaissance portraits. He bought a kiln and began searching Deruta’s museum archives to select his subjects. His shapes are also typical of the Renaissance Italian tradition: apothecary jars, centerpieces and large wall plates called “da pompa”, because they were used as gifts for wedding and important political meetings.