Pietro Melandri Biography
Painter, decorator, set designer and ceramist, Pietro Melandri was born in Faenza on 25 July 1885. A student at the local School of Arts and Crafts, a pupil of Antonio Berti, at the age of thirteen he became an apprentice at the "Minardi" factory, owned by the Venturino brothers and Virginio Minardi, where he remained until 1905, moved to the Salerno area in 1906 and worked as a mural decorator. Then, having completed his military service in Turin, he went to Milan where, in addition to working as a set designer and decorator, he attended evening courses at the Academy of Brera and those of Applied Arts at the Sforzesco Castle. In 1908 he participated with some paintings in the Torricelliana Exhibition. Called up to arms in 1916, he returned to Faenza, after a few months of imprisonment, at the end of 1918 and after a few months spent as director of the "Minardi" factory, in 1919 he opened, together with Paolo Zoli and Francesco Nonni, the workshop for the production of artistic ceramics "La Faience" dedicating itself with the utmost commitment to technical and stylistic research for the renewal of traditional Faenza ceramics. The brand of this period consists of a quadripartite circle containing the initials M and Z of the two partners and from which four serpentines depart. In 1920, having broken off the partnership with Paolo Zoli, but not with Francesco Nonni with whom he would collaborate until the 1930s, he took over the "Calzi Ceramiche" laboratory owned by Achille Calzi with headquarters in via Roma Nuova in Faenza and invited him to collaborate with him. Arturo Martini. In 1921, the year in which he participated with some ceramics in the 1st Rome Biennale, he met the Ravenna industrialist Umberto Focaccia and the following year, thanks to Focaccia's financial intervention, he purchased the premises already owned by the "Minardi" factory and founded the "Melandri-Focaccia" factory, based in Faenza, via Baccarini 29/a. Together they presented their creations, marked with a goshawk enclosed in a circle and the initial FM, at the Monza Biennials of 1923 and 1925. Again in 1925 they were present at the Expo des Arts Decoratives in Paris and in 1930 at the Monza Triennale and they obtain an honorary diploma at the Barcelona Expo. After having collaborated with Giò Ponti on the decoration of the interiors of some large transatlantic liners and some Lombard villas, in 1931 financial difficulties forced Focaccia to sell the factory and Melandri, who obtained a part of the property with entrance in via Salvolini, in 1932 definitively sets up his own business. As the sole owner of the factory he revolutionizes production by dedicating himself to works far from tradition, highly innovative and inspired by the widest experimentation. In 1933 he participated with some ceramics in the Milan Triennale. Awarded at the Milan Art Triennale in 1936, in 1937 he achieved great success at the Universal Exhibition in Paris where he was recognized as the most important of Italian ceramists and where he was awarded the Grand Prize. In the same year he received the Gold Medal at the Gaetano Ballardini Prize in Faenza. In 1938, with the Vase of the Golden Rose, and in 1939, with the Announcing Angel panel, he won first prize at the National Ceramics Competition in Faenza . The brand of the 1930s consists of the usual goshawk in the circle and the single initial M or simply the writing P. Melandri Faenza. In 1944 a bombing destroyed the factory and Melandri remained inactive until 1946 when he resumed contact with the architect Ponti for whom he created ceramic panels intended to decorate the "Conte di Biancamano" ship. After the war Melandri, with whom the major protagonists of twentieth century ceramics collaborated over the years including: Francesco Di Cocco, Ercole Drei, Carlo Corvi, Giovanni Guerrini, Bruno Innocenti, Carlo Lorenzetti, Domenico Matteucci, Enrico Mazzolani, Giuseppe Mazzullo, Giuseppe Tampieri , gives life to a rich and original production which, while harking back to the Faenza ceramic tradition, is full of a strong and pregnant modernity which makes him, in its own right, one of the great master ceramists of the century. In 1966 Pietro Melandri participated, with a great anthological exhibition, at the Biennale of Ceramic Art in Gubbio. From 1969 he slowed down his creative activity and slowly left the management of the company to his closest collaborators. Pietro Melandri, who remained active until the age of 86, died in Faenza in 1976. The furnace owned by Melandri continues to produce on his casts until 1986.
