Chini, Galileo (1873 - 1956)

Designer, painter and potter. He taught decorative arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. L’Arte della Ceramica (Florence) manufactory was founded in 1896, during the period of Count Vincenzo Giustiniani’s directorship, by Galileo Chini (1873-1956), Vittorio Giunti, Giovanni Vannuzzi and Giovanni Montelatici. In addition to renewing old Italian majolica designs, the manufactory produced Art Nouveau ornamented objects of floral design from its establishment onwards, before all the other Italian workshops. The manufactory invented its own lustre technique in. preparation for the Paris International Exhibition of 1900, and later worked with porcelain material. It achieved great success in Turin in 1902, and also in St Louis in 1904. From 1903 until around 1910, when it closed down, the manufactory was based at Fontebuoni. The art director Galileo Chini left the company in 1906 to work independently. In 1906, Galileo Chini left the company L'Arte della Ceramica to set up a new workshop together with his cousins (Augusto, Pietro and Tino Chini) in his home town of Mugello, calling it the “furnaces of St Lawrence”. They made ornamental glassware and lamps there. The incipient Art Deco style is apparent in the designs of the artistic director, G. Ghini, even from the early years. The factory was destroyed by bombing in 1944.