From Deruta with Ceramics: Maintaining Traditions, Honouring Italian Identity

For over six decades now, Giorgio Moretti’s family has upheld the medieval tradition of crafting maiolica, a type of tin-glazed pottery with shapes and colours adorning a bright white background. Deruta, an inconspicuous Umbrian medieval town with a population of under 10,000, happens to be one of the main centres of Italy’s – and the world’s – maiolica production. Hidden somewhere between Deruta’s graphic Umbrian alleyways and travertine walls is L’Antica Deruta, Mr Moretti’s family business.

The history of L’Antica Deruta began nearly 60 years ago when Alviero Moretti, the son of local ceramic artisans, and Giorgio’s father, decided to establish his own workshop, L’Antica Deruta, with his wife, Mirella, an art teacher. What started as a small artisan workshop soon became a leading company in the field of ceramics, exporting tableware and furniture to the United States, Canada, the Middle East, South Korea and Japan.

Today, with the passion and determination inherited from their parents, Giorgio and his sister Camilla, the third generation of the Moretti family, continue transforming that small workshop’s craftsmanship and artistic heritage into a contemporary legacy. For Mr. Moretti, ceramics is all about “nurturing roots and continuing a one-thousand-year tradition”.

“Deruta has a long history of excellence in Italian ceramics. Great masters from the Renaissance onwards have worked in Deruta, and many ancient ceramics from Deruta are present in the most important museums in the world such as the Louvre, the Hermitage, the Metropolitan, and the Victoria and Albert. Maintaining and nurturing roots here is essential to continuing a one-thousand-year tradition.”

Historically, tin-glazed pottery was a product of the region we call the Middle East today. The craft is said to have been introduced to Europe through Spain, then under Islamic rule, in the early 15th century. Decorated jars were imported from Mallorca, Spain, to Italy, where the art of maiolica flourished. The craft became a staple of Italian Renaissance fine art in the 1500s, at a time when maiolica was an art that few could afford. Sets of dishes and pots too intricate to actually be used as tableware were displayed at wealthy banquets to entertain and impress guests with painted stories inspired by mythology and Christianity.

Today, the tradition of maiolica is best preserved in Deruta and a handful of other Italian towns like Urbino and Castel Durante. According to Mr. Moretti, “there are many small and larger businesses in Deruta spanning generations that represent the richness of the region’s artistic and cultural heritage.” As for L’Antica Deruta, he says, “the motto has always been ‘research, quality, culture’.” Each product is handmade in the company’s factory and is always accompanied by a guarantee certificate. Despite mechanisation and digitisation becoming more prevalent, L’Antica Deruta maintains creative originality and craftsmanship in their products.

“The digital transformation we are experiencing has not changed our production, which is still done by hand. We use computerised kilns for firing ceramics, but for the rest of the process, everything is still being carried out as it was centuries ago”, he explains.

Mr. Moretti says that maintaining 100% Italian identity in their production is what he considers to be la dolce vita. For him, the term means “offering our customers products that have a soul and are always produced with care by our master craftsmen in Italy.”

Pair your stay at Antognolla resort and residences with a visit to Deruta and a guided tour of L’Antica Deruta and a visit to the Museum of Ceramics.