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Made in art
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Ugo L a Pie tra
A SENSE OF THE SACRED THAT HAS BEEN LOST Our daily domestic rituals were once performed with utensils crafted according to ancient traditions, just like the ceremonial objects used in religious rites. Unfortunately, this is no longer true
In the many areas of Italy that are characterised by a rural culture, and in the mountain communities in particular, traditional crafts have always been strongly ritualistic, being often associated with farming and closely related to the cycle of the seasons. It is commonly known that the lives of farmers since the early pagan cultures have always been intimately bound up with the rites connected with various religious beliefs and, vice versa, religious rites have always been fashioned on farming activities. In this ancient world, every gesture, every task, every ritual was permeated with sacredness; and everyday objects were often the bearers of a deeper symbolism, emphasised by signs that exalted both their material and spiritual value. We often find these features of rural culture in our traditional crafts, which have always produced objects that were complementary to agricultural activities. In many cases, the farmers themselves became skilled artisans during the winter months, when farming was suspended.
soapstone and leather (like the decorated cowbell belts that are well impressed into our collective memory). Beliefs and superstitions were concealed under these signs: they were genuine expressions of faith, transmitted inside the artistic decorations and the objects themselves. The wooden wine goblet known as “grolla”, for example, symbolises brotherhood, while engraved on objects that range from goat collars to Swiss pine cradles, from household trunks and chests to moulds for butter and bread loaves, we find rosettes, initials and, especially, the monogram of Jesus Christ and the crosses of Saint Maurice and Malta.
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One notable example can be found in the local history and traditional crafts of the Aosta Valley, where the farmer-artisans constructed tools, utensils and furniture for the home that are exhibited to this day at the Fiera di Sant’Orso, held in Aosta. The fair was born from the custom, introduced by Saint Ursus himself, of giving wooden clogs to the poor in winter. If we look closely, we can see the signs and symbols that the farmer-artisans engraved and embossed on the surfaces of the implements that they made out of wood, wrought iron,
These objects were made for a specific use and were at the same time characterised by the symbols that represented the spiritual bond between the person and the object. And this was precisely the salient feature of Italy’s traditional crafts: our daily domestic rituals were performed with utensils crafted according to ancient traditions, just like the ceremonial objects used by priests in their liturgies. A sense of the sacred that seems to have disappeared from our modern everyday lives: the garden, which was the sacred realm of the gods, has lost its genius loci, and our household tools no longer represent a daily ritual... Yet, when we observe an artisan crafting an object (whether in clay, carved wood or glass), we can still get a glimpse of those time-honoured values. And if designers will look more closely at the gestures of an artisan as he shapes his materials, they will rediscover the mysterious signs that have always revealed the spiritual value permeating craftsmanship.