Description

The name probably derives from Latin caro et vellus (meat and wool). Characteristic is the production of pottery with a choice of designs and colors according to local models. It is a production whose origin is known and that, however, since 1500 revealed itself as one of the most appreciated of the whole Mediterranean basin. The art of ceramics gave luster and decorum to the small center of Calvello. The production has always been based on the working of clay, a particular and exclusive local compound, used for the production of every kind of artifacts. Unique and prestigious impressions made the production famous in time. The clay was shaped in workshops and laboratories run by families, with rudimentary, almost primitive tones: an ancient wisdom allowed to pass from the dough to the objects that were often cooked in wood-burning ovens. While fathers and sons worked on the raw material, women crushed the mortars, dosed the various components for the decoration and painted the "Uccello", which remained the true specialty of the "figuli" of Calvello. Entire generations of "figuli", called "faenzari", celebrated in the old kilns or clay crushers of the ceramic district of Calvello, motifs borrowed from Greek and Faentine ceramics.