Decorator, ceramist, painter.
After he finished
elementary school, Galileo Chini attended art school. When
his father died, Chini began an apprenticeship with an uncle
who was a restorer, at the same time enrolling in the Free
School for Drawing Nudes at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Florence in 1890. There he had the opportunity to get to
know Plinio Nomellini and Telemaco Signorini. Upon his
uncle’s death, Chini took over the family business and
obtained several contracts from the Sovrintendenza.
In 1896, the Marquis Ginori's
historic Florentine factory, Doccia, was sold to Milanese
industrialist Richard; in the same year Chini, together with
four of his friends, lay the foundation for a small ceramic
factory, which they named "Ceramic Art". Despite the small
factory's restricted capacity, the pieces that Chini’s group
made were of extraordinary quality and caused a profound
change in Italian production, giving a new look to the
national majolica. Their ceramics were distributed widely,
spreading as far as the markets in Europe and the United
States. During the same period of time, Chini also
participated in the Universal Exhibitions in London, Turin,
and the Biennial in Venice, the IV and XII
Biennials and he is one of a number of decorative artists
ho should be remembered for their works shown at the savings
banks of Pistoia, Arezzo, and Florence.
From 1911-1914 he was called
to Bangkok to decorate the Throne Room of the king of Siam;
his success was subsequently confirmed when he was offered
the job of painting the panels of the Central Room of the XI
Venice Biennial. It was at this point in his career that
Chini came to be considered the "official painter" of the
Venice Biennial. He also put great time and effort into
theatrical stage design; in the course of his work he tried
to renovate the splendor - just a tad on the heavy side - of
antiquated Baroque set design, upon which he managed to
imprint the new Liberty vocabulary. When he returned from
Siam, he created the sets for Giacomo Puccini's Turandot.
Works:
Ceramics, Paintings