Ddr. Mateja Kos: Slovenian Majolica

Majolica has a special status in the Slovenian tradition. It has become, so to speak, a mythological object, closely connected with the identity of the Slovene nation. As a symbol of good and happy company, it is sung by folk songs. This special shape of the wine handle is named after the ceramic majolica technique, named after the Spanish island of Mallorca. The technique was perfected in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries, where this form of vessel (jug) also originated. Northern Italian majolica-based products, especially those from the important center of Faenza, have been given the name of faience elsewhere in Europe. From the inventories of the property of wealthier nobles and burghers in the territory of present-day Slovenia, we know that majolica vessels were already used in Slovenia at the end of the 16th century, although these techniques were never used in the manufacture of vessels. The first preserved industrially made handle for wine – majolica in our country comes from the ceramics factory in the then Nemški Dol and is made of white-ring ceramics. Majolica is most associated with the ceramic factory in Kamnik, where they experienced their greatest prosperity.

Ddr. Mateja Kos is the co-author of the exhibition Slovenian Majolica, which can be viewed at the Intermunicipal Museum Kamnik until 20 May 2022. She is employed at the National Museum of Slovenia as the curator of ceramics and glass collections. She is also an assistant professor in the field of applied art at the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts, University of Maribor. As a representative of the National Museum of Slovenia, she leads the partner group of the European project Creative Entrepreneurship in Ceramic Regions – Development, Education, Promotion (CerDee), the project is led by the National Porcelain Museum from Selb in Germany.