Giuseppe Piombanti Ammannati Biography
Born in San Lorenzo a Colline, in the province of Florence, in 1898 the sculptor, painter and ceramist Giuseppe Piombanti Ammannati attended the Santa Croce Professional School for Decorative and Industrial Arts in Florence and then Libero Andreotti's sculpture courses at the State Institute of Art of Porta Romana in Florence. In 1918, having recently graduated, he was entrusted with the chair of History and Art of Ceramics at the School of Ceramic Art in Sesto Fiorentino. At the end of the decade he worked for a few months at the "Florentia Ars" ceramic factory. From the early twenties he created some artistic ceramics, unique pieces, inspired by the world of the countryside. In 1925 he was called to teach ceramics at the Sesto Fiorentino Art School. In the following decade he created numerous models made in series by the "Fantechi" factory with which he collaborated, as an outsider, until the 1940s, maintaining in parallel the activity of teacher at various art institutes (Sesto Fiorentino, Grottaglie, Urbino etc.). In 1933 he participated in the Milan Art Triennale, obtaining an honorable mention. From 1934 to 1936 he was director of the School of Ceramic Art of Sesto Fiorentino and, in these years, he held his first solo exhibition in Florence. In 1936 he moved to Grottaglie where he obtained a professorship in the local School of Art. In 1937 he won the Grand Prize for Ceramics at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In the following years he held personal exhibitions in Taranto in 1939 and in Forlì in 1942. In parallel with ceramics he explored his pictorial and sculptural themes, creating works inspired by country life, studies and portraits of people and religious themes. In 1940 he was appointed director of the Urbino School of Art. He died in Florence in the summer of 1996.
