Franco Scassellati

Ceramic Art

That of the Scassellati is the story of a family strongly linked to the passion for ceramic art. The ancient knowledge of a millenary profession has been handed down from father to son for five generations. Franco Scassellati’s productions are a treasure trove of wisdom, where passion and mastery come together to create unique creations, true works of art, with contemporary and innovative results. Each single object is entirely hand-made, decorated and covered with enamels and colors, chromatisms with unique effects, created with secret formulas handcrafted in the workshop. The use of fine raw materials and the utmost attention to detail and execution means that the ceramics signed by Franco Scassellati are products of a high artistic level, which stand out for their style.
Each object in the collections is the guardian and witness of an affective family heritage, made eternal by the alchemy between creative flair and knowledge, which the sovereign fire forever impresses on the artifact an indissoluble link, of a timeless time, between past and future.

Franco Scassellati was born in Sassari in 1942, the first of six children, he grew up in the magical atmosphere of the furnace of his father’s ceramic workshop where he matured his artistic training, passionate about art he attended the local Art Institute. His father Mario Scassellati, lands in Sardinia in 1938. Originally from Gualdo Tadino (PG), former son of the ceramist Giuseppe Scassellati, in 1944 he set up the first ceramic factory in Sassari, here some of the current ones find school and training potters of Sardinia. The art of Franco Scassellati is in the present, through the history of a family that represents the excellence of ceramic art.

He has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions (Florence, Savona, Gualdo Tadino, Faenza, Bologna, Assemini, Caltagirone, Monaco, New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, and Sidney) from which he has obtained flattering awards. Many of his works can be found in public and private collections. Some kept among the collections of some Italian museums. At the Gavirate pipe museum are exhibited his marvelous giant ceramic pipes.

Franco Scassellati in 1973, pursuing a mainly artistic, creative and innovative discourse, broke away from his father’s company, setting up his own laboratory for the production of art ceramics in Sassari. Passionate researcher with a strong inclination to alchemical combinations, he makes his laboratory a place of sophisticated experimentation, which will lead him in a short time to achieve highly professional technical results. He himself creates and prepares secret recipes, which through sophisticated cooking procedures allow him to obtain unique and original color ranges. To the production of luster ceramics, where each object is unique, he combines a production of refined white ceramics (which have become a symbol of Sardinian ceramics) decorated with engravings inspired by the motifs of the Sardinian tradition, with references to zoomorphic and floral symbols.
With Franco in the laboratory his daughter Monica Scassellati and grandson Jacopo Scassellati work and continue to carry on the tradition.