Galileo Chini vase, Borgo San Lorenzo (Italy), 1920-25

Galileo Andrea Maria Chini (Florence, 1873 – Florence, 1956) was an Italian painter, decorator, graphic artist and ceramist, one of the protagonists of the Liberty style in Italy. Following an important ten-year experience (1896-1906) with the “Manifattura Arte della Ceramica”, a reality founded in collaboration with other artists and experts in the sector and with which he will receive national and international awards, Chini will decide to found in the the same year (1906), together with his cousin Chino Chini, the “Manifattura Fornaci San Lorenzo” in Borgo San Lorenzo; the chosen symbol is a grill, emblem of the martyrdom of the saint of the same name, surmounted by the lily of Florence and accompanied by the inscription Mugello. The new factory is also dedicated to glass production. In addition to the quality of the works produced and the particular metallic luster technique, contributing to the success on a national and international level was also the fruitful relationship that Galileo Chini had always had with architecture, well ahead of its time.

On a stylistic level, the vase fits perfectly into the artistic current of Art Nouveau, also known in Italy as floral or liberty style, an artistic and philosophical movement that developed between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century and which influenced the arts figurative, architecture and applied arts.