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Schools of excellence
IN THE RENAISSANCE WORKSHOPS APPRENTICES LEARNED BY EXAMPLE us from the workshops of the Renaissance, and that these schools continue to put into practice. Schools proudly guard the secrets of their tradition, which are the result of the experience and know-how accumulated in the course of the centuries, as well as the expression of great regional vocations. At the same time, cutting-edge technologies can inject new lifeblood into this heritage, as the four major advanced training centres for restoration of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Tourism (MiBACT) demonstrate: in Rome, the Istituto superiore per la conservazione ed il restauro (Institute of advanced studies in conservation and restoration) and the Istituto centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e librario (Central institute for book and archives conservation and restoration); in Florence, the Opificio delle pietre dure (leader in the field of art restoration); and in Turin, the most recent yet equally extraordinary training institute of La Venaria Reale. These are centres of excellence that have achieved an authoritative and international reputation thanks to the advanced technologies developed by their workshops, the invaluable allies of Italy’s unique savoir-faire. Tradition is thriving and evolving in every sector in which the schools featured in this book operate: mosaic (Scuola mosaicisti del Friuli, Spilimbergo), glass (Scuola del vetro Abate Zanetti, Murano), ceramics (the time-honoured art institutes of Faenza and
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Caltagirone), jewellery (Istituto d’arte Pietro Selvatico, Padova), jewels and watchmaking (Tarì Design School, Marcianise), metal engraving (Scuola dell’arte della medaglia, Rome). Not to mention leather (Alta scuola di pelletteria italiana, Scandicci), shoes (the Footwear Polytechnic, Vigonza) and tailoring (Scuola di sartoria Nazareno Fonticoli, Penne). And the fascinating professions of stagecraft (Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Milan), violin making (Scuola internazionale di liuteria, Cremona), and haute cuisine (Alma, the international school of Italian Cuisine, Colorno). This variety of rich and complex training opportunities is provided by public institutes of national repute, professional schools linked to regional traditions and centres established by farsighted private companies with the aim of protecting and transmitting a cultural and productive wealth of knowledge that cannot be exported and must not be lost. This indispensable role is underlined by Giovanni Puglisi in his authoritative introduction: “Given the absence, in Italy, of specific public programmes to support direct transmission of knowledge from master to apprentice in the informal setting of the atelier and the workshop, the most effective means to protect our traditional arts and crafts is represented by the schools, institutes and centres which this book brings to the attention of the public. Indeed in some cases it is the only barrier to prevent the irreversible depletion of Italy’s time-honoured creativity.” (www.scuolemestieridarte.it)
Top, from left: the ancient art of glass making is handed down in the historic school Abate Zanetti in Murano; students at Alma, the international training centre for Italian Cuisine, whose Rector is Gualtiero Marchesi. Below, the cover of the book La regola del talento (The Code of talent). Opposite, the four major schools run by the MiBACT (Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Tourism) are the standard-bearers of Italy’s supremacy in conservation and restoration.
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