White gold

An exhibition dedicated to the history of the Doccia factory, from Carlo Ginori to Gio Ponti

White Gold. Three Centuries of Ginori Porcelain is the title of the exhibition that Museo Poldi Pezzoli and Museo Ginori will present to the public from October 25, 2023 to February 19, 2024.
The exhibition, curated by Federica Manoli, curator of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum’s ceramics collection, and Oliva Rucellai and Rita Balleri, curators of the Museo Ginori, presents a selection of the most important works made by the Ginori Manufactory between the 18th and 20th centuries, preserved in various Italian and European museums, as well as at the Poldi Pezzoli, the Museo Ginori, currently closed for restoration, and in private collections.
The exhibition itinerary presents about 60 works and spans three centuries, presenting the salient phases of the production of the prestigious Manifattura.
In the 1700s, under the leadership of its founder, Marquis Carlo Ginori (1702 – 1757), production was distinguished by porcelain sculptures of significant size that looked to both ancient art and the Florentine Renaissance and late Baroque tradition.

This section of the exhibition features absolute masterpieces such as the monumental Venere de’Medici  from the Museo Ginori and fine juxtapositions of porcelain sculptures displayed for the first time together with their respective bronze archetypes such as: the Menade danzante set against the bronze Amphitrite from the Studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici, the Laocoonte from the Museo Poldi Pezzoli with the bronze from which it is taken, and the Atlas Holding the World from the galleries of Turin’s Palazzo Madama with Ferdinando Tacca’s Hercules Holding the Globe, from the collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein.

Nineteenth-century production is represented by some vases made for large exhibitions, and by the table service for the Kedivé created around 1872, in neo-Egyptian style.
In 1896 the factory expanded and became the Società Ceramica Richard Ginori with headquarters in Milan, which added to the Doccia factory the one in San Cristoforo on the Naviglio Grande, among others.

The itinerary comes to a close with a section devoted to the artistic direction of Gio Ponti (1923-1933), who, while looking toward new horizons, never abandoned the references to the antique, a distinctive feature over the centuries of the Manifattura: among his works on display are two exceptional Ciste made especially for Fernanda and Ugo Ojetti, now owned by the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.

The elegant and striking layout is by the Guicciardini and Magni Architetti firm of Florence.

Accompanying the exhibition is a Skira Editore publication, with essays on the history of porcelain in Europe and Italy, the vicissitudes of the Doccia Manufactory, and the figure of the founder; brief descriptive cards of the works on display; useful in-depth apparatus; and a glossary of technical terms. This is not a traditional exhibition catalog, but a publication that will be able to satisfy the public’s curiosity about the history, collecting and making of porcelain and that also contains important historical and artistic news about the works on display.
Throughout the duration of the exhibition, numerous side activities, family workshops, in-depth lectures and a series of meetings related to the theme of “table culture” will be organized.

The exhibition is supported by the Ico Falck Foundation.