Topic: San Polo, Italy. Very large Art Plaque...?

[Martyn]

Here's one of our longest standing unresolved pieces....

Very large plaque/relief sculpture made at the San Polo pottery, Venice. 1963.

130cm x 65cm

hand modelled glazed earthenware, bolted in sections to carved solid wood backing. extremely heavy.

standard 'SAN POLO MADE IN ITALY' pottery mark painted, 'CIO' or 'GIO', artist monogram and '63 incised lower left.

Any references to the San Polo pottery are thin on the ground here in the UK, and at least one we've seen had it closing in the late 50s which is clearly not correct. There output seems to have been colourful handmade decorative tin glazed earthenware producing large pitchers, vases, wall masks..etc (I've even seen a table) often with figurative decoration like fish. The only designer I've ever seen attributed to the pieces is an 'O Rosa'.

some examples:
http://www.ragoarts.com/onlinecats/10.03MOD/0687.jpg
http://www.mondocane.com/p2/objects/objects_p2j.htm
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/San-Polo-Studio-Vase-Gambone-Fantoni-Era_W0QQitemZ270143283763QQihZ017QQcategoryZ1044QQcmdZViewItem

This relief really does'nt look much like the others we've seen, that might be classed more 'touristy'. Our feeling is that it's an artist piece as it was quite common for artist to work with potteries in Italy at this time, Asger Jorn and Lucio Fontana being two examples producing similar ceramic work around this time.

I think this is going to be a tricky one but any further information would be much appreciated.

(The little horse at the bottom of the main image is 7.5cm (3in) long for scale)

[Martyn]

Cripes - that's a big lump 'o' pottery!

Sure is, needs industrial bolts to hang on the wall!

Thanks both, I had'nt spotted Violettendencies bowl before, pretty, but thats about the limit of anyones knowledge of San Polo I've seen on the net and we've been hunting for years now. I suspect this thread might need to be bumped a few times, but thought if I got it up here at least it would come up in searches?