Students of Ashgabat get acquainted with Italian ceramics
On the occasion of Italian Design Day in the World, the Embassy of Italy to Turkmenistan organized a series of presentations. Italian Ambassador to Turkmenistan Diego Ungaro held a video conference with students from four metropolitan universities. The topic of discussion was the history of Italian ceramics as one of the richest cultural heritage sources of this European country.
The videoconference was attended by the Magtymguly Turkmen State University, the International University for the Humanities and Development, the Azady Turkmen National Institute of World Languages, and the Turkmen State Academy of Fine Arts.
Italian ceramic production comprehensively developed in the economic, historical and commercial-cultural sectors. Having acquainted students with the traditional foundations of Italian ceramics and making make a retrospective journey into the history, Diego Ungaro invited participants to ask questions of interest to them and share their opinions about what they heard.
Ancient pottery has been accompanying humanity for many centuries, and its history has been studied for a long time and in detail. It was Italy that played a large historical role in the development of European porcelain production. The scope of distribution of Italian clay products is very wide. A wide variety of traditional pottery samples, highly valued around the world, can be found in different regions of Italy.
Speaking of design, it is impossible to ignore Italian tile, of which there are many varieties. Ceramic tile was covered with milky-white glaze in Italy as early as in the ninth century, which made it unique.
Last May marked 500 years since the death of Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci. The famous artist worked in his youth at a ceramic enterprise, where he drew patterns for tiles. Recently, Rome presented to the public a small ceramic tile dated to 1471, depicting Archangel Gabriel. Experts suggest that this is one of Leonardo’s early works.
At the end of the video presentation, students were introduced to the works by contemporary Italian artists.
The Italian party has been repeatedly organizing educational programs by videoconference in Turkmenistan. Thus, a few years earlier, during the Italian Design Days in Ashgabat, students met with designer and architect Luca Molinari from the University of Naples, and in March 2019 with Professor Igor Tanzi., the Florence European Institute of Design Director.
