Ceramic

The word “ceramic” comes from the greek keramos=clay, “terra del vasaio”.
According to the legislations, the ceramic product is defined as a non-metallic, organic material obtained by clay minerals, cold-fashioned and consolidated in an irreversible way. The history of ceramic begins 75.000 years ago when the Neanderthal man, after discovering the fire, began to bake the clay. The production of the ceramic goes trough the millenia in various countries (China, Mesopotamia, Crete, Persia, Greece, Italy). Since the late Middle Age and during the Renaissance, various decorative forms, for both the coloristics and depiction of the so-called stories, were developed in Italy. At the end of XIX century, the production of ceramics had a considerable increase due to the introduction of some insustrialised techniques. In Firenze the use of ceramics is scarce; during the Renaissance they were used as bricks in the Brunelleschi dome of the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore and in the domes of the Cappelle Medicee as well as in the façades of others florentine churches (e.g. Basilica di San Lorenzo, Basilica di Santa Maria del Carmine, Chiesa di San Felice in Piazza) and in the Fortezza da Basso. Another kind of Ceramic, the glazed terracotta, was obtained by Della Robbia (XV-XVI centuries) and used in Firenze in several bas-reliefs to decorate churches and many other buildings.

The ceramic is made by clay and other minerals such as quartz, micas, feldspars, iron oxides and hydroxides, carbonates, solfures, solphates and organic material. The mineralogical composition varies according to the ceramic types and the coating presence. This latter is not present in the brick whereas the glazed terracotta has a lead and tin based vitreous enamel giving to the artifact the apparent marble consistency.