U picciriddu di Ribera
€280,00
Description by the artist
In this piece I was inspired by the magnificent colors of the typical Sicilian cart and the flowers of our fields. I then imagined a picciriddu (child in Italian), who picks up oranges in the countryside and offers them to all of us. The other scene represents an orange tree, that simple and sincere, shows off all the beauty of its fruits, almost as if it were also a juggler. A house in the distance recalls the presence of the farmer, who patiently, with the help of nature, takes care of his citrus grove. The vase is moulded with the ancient technique of the lucignolo, it goes through bisque firing, then glazed and painted, and goes through glaze firing for the vitrification of colors and glazes.
Details and dimensions
The artwork in the Sicilian culture
Oranges, lemons and prickly pears are symbolic fruits of Sicily. The first two grow in luxuriant citrus groves (including the famous Conca d’Oro in Palermo, gold precisely for the color of its citrus fruits) while prickly pears climb everywhere drawing characteristically the landscape of the island (it is not uncommon to see abandoned houses with prickly pears that have become the new owners, at least outside, on roofs and walls). These fruits were imported by the Arabs during their domination (IX-XI century). The artist imagined u picciriddu (Sicilian for child) in a countryside of Ribera, in southern Sicily, a town famous for a prized quality of oranges: the Washington Navel, considered the best in the world.
(photo) Sicilian oranges were introduced during the Arab domination (IX-XI century)