Ferruccio Mengaroni Biography
Born in Pesaro in 1875, Ferruccio Mengaroni began his career as a ceramist, a pupil of Telesforo Bertozzini, Cesare Gai and Romolo Bezzicheri, at the laboratories of the "Molaroni" ceramic factory in Pesaro, at just twelve years old, forced by his father, an engineer and teacher, who wants to punish him for having been expelled from all the schools in the Kingdom. Having become passionate about the material in 1895, he was, together with Attilio Berarducci and Arnaldo Giuliani, among the founding members of the ceramic factory "Berarducci & C." In the early 1900s he was the technical director of the "Antonibon" factory in Nove (Vicenza). Having returned to Pesaro he worked again at "Molaroni" and in 1908 he was present with a large round with the reproduction of the Madonna of the Pomegranate by Botticelli, obtaining great recognition, at the National Ceramics Exhibition in Faenza. A great majolica maker and decorator in 1908 he came into possession of the recipes, with the formulas for the preparation of mixtures, paints, colors and firing systems, of the 16th century ceramist Cipriano Piccolpasso and soon, in his small kiln in via Castelfidardo in Pesaro, reaches, in his majolica reproductions ancient, results of a perfection never achieved by anyone. In 1914 Mengaroni opened, in partnership with Aristodemo and Ettore Mancini, the important "MAP" factory (Artistic Maioliche Pesaresi). The very first production of the company was marked SDAC (Studio D'Arte Ceramica). In 1919, thanks to the financial contribution of some people from Pesaro, the company took on an industrial tone and employed around fifty employees. On 13 May 1925 Ferruccio Mengaroni died, during the preparation phases of the II Biennial of Decorative Arts in Monza, overwhelmed by one of his enormous polychrome majolica tondos depicting the face of Medusa and today preserved in the entrance of the Ceramics Museum of Pesaro.
