Deruta has been an important ceramic production centre since the Middle Ages, especially because of its commercial links with the nearby city of Perugia. In 1277, the Municipality of Perugia asked Deruta’s labour force to make more than one hundred thousand bricks to be used to pave the city’s streets. Building materials and pottery were the leading products of Deruta, which has now become one of the most famous cities for craftmanship. The production quality was so high that in some cases maiolica was used as a bargaining chip in the payment of taxes or trade to replace cash when the money supply was running out.
Around the city, the remains of ancient kilns used for firing ceramics reveal that during the Renaissance, there were fifty-two active workshops in the historic centre alone. The remains recovered show that innovative and sometimes revolutionary techniques and styles were adopted which nevertheless preserve elements of continuity with the past: a kind of ‘potter’s memory bank’ that fearlessly welcomed the originality and modernity of the new.
The treasured collections of the Museo Regionale della Ceramica – housed in the 14th-century convent of San Francesco – reveal the profound artistic creativity and pride that Deruta’s maiolica experts transferred to their present-day descendants. Today, the home and the workshop are still characteristic and fundamental aspects of life in the town. Each artisan’s workshop tells the story of this ‘civil’ art form, the talent that has made Deruta famous worldwide, and the fascinating secret techniques that have been handed down for generations.