A exhibition itinerary to retrace the connection between the Vasari family and the ancient Arezzo factoriesstarting from the potter profession practiced by the grandfather of the most famous Giorgio, Giorgio di Lazzaro Taldi.
It will open on Wednesday 12 June at 4.30 pm at the National Archaeological Museum ‘Gaio Cilnio Mecenate’ of Arezzo (via Margaritone 10) “THE Vasari “potters” and ancient Arezzo ceramic production”exhibition curated by Maria Gatto in the context of “Arezzo. The city of Vasari”the system of exhibitions, events and celebrations that until February 2025 will pay homage to the Arezzo master on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of his death, promoted by Municipality of Arezzo and CR Firenze Foundation with Guido D’Arezzo Foundationin collaboration with Regional Directorate of National Museums of Tuscany of the Ministry of Culture, Uffizi Galleries, with the curatorship of the scientific committee chaired by Carlo Sisi.
The name “Vasari” derives from the potter profession practiced by the grandfather of the more famous Giorgio, Giorgio di Lazzaro Taldi. Following the literary trace of his life, the exhibition will investigate the relationship between Lazzaro’s activity and Arezzo ceramics, which he studied, imitated and investigated, like an archaeologist ante litteram, the workshops in the Carcerelle area, a place well known in archaeological literature. An opportunity to visit the recent installation of the rooms dedicated to the famous terra sealed vases rich in ornaments and mythological themes – particularly significant in the beginning of the relations between the Vasari family and the Medici family – now enriched with a special section to illustrate the relationship between Lazarus and him arretina vasa. Open to the public until 2 February 2025, they will be read on the occasion of the opening extracts from “Le Vite” edited by Samuele Boncompagni (times: Mon-Sat 9.00-19.30, Sun and holidays 9.00-14.00, first Sunday of the month 9.00-19.30, info www.vasari450.it).
During the 15th century Giorgio di Lazzaro Taldi from Cortona arrived in Arezzo and practiced his art as a potter in this city in a house with a kiln he owned located in the district from Berardi to Perini (now Via Mazzini). Giorgio Vasari remembers his grandfather Giorgio in the life of his ancestor Lazzaro “he paid constant attention to the antiquity of the Arezzo earthen vases; during the time that Messer Gentile from Urbino, Bishop of Arezzo, was in Arezzo, he rediscovered the ways of the red and black color of the earthen vases that up to the time of King Porsenna the old Aretines they worked. And he, who was an industrious person, made large vases about an arm and a half high, which can still be seen in his house, from that antiquity retained for conservation. vases, where they thought the ancients worked, Giorgio found in a field of earth at the Ponte alla Calciarella, a place so called, under the earth three arms, three arches of the ancient furnaces, and searching around they found infinite broken vases of that mixture, and of the entire four, which, when the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici came to Arezzo, he received as a gift from Giorgio through the introduction of the bishop; which he took, and were the cause of the beginning of the servitude which he then always held with that very happy house” (G . Vasari 1558, II, pp. 183-184).
“Arezzo. The city of Vasari” enjoys the patronage of Ministry of Culturepartner of the initiative State Archives of Arezzo, Diocese of Arezzo, Cortona and San Sepolcro, City Library of Arezzo, Fraternity of the Laity of Arezzo, Arezzo Intour Foundation. Graphic project by Wml design.
