Jafet Torelli (died 1898) was an Italian ceramist and sculptor. He was born and resident in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

where he mainly completed works in ceramic. Torelli studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts of Florence The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. M ...

in 1857, at the end of his studies he focused on sculpture, and he won an award for his ingenuity in a bas-relief. From there, he traveled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1860, to work with cavaliere Giuseppe Deverà, who later became a professor at the Accademia Albertina of

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. In 1865, Torelli was hired by the firm of Ginori, as a designer for his ceramic factories, and was prolific in porcelain and maiolica designs, many displayed at the 1867 Universal Exposition of Paris: among a table set, with glasses, plate, and candlesticks, all with figures of gardeners and ornament. Ginori then assigned him to the

Doccia Porcelain The Doccia porcelain manufactory, at Doccia, a ''frazione'' of Sesto Fiorentino, near Florence, was in theory founded in 1735 by marchese Carlo Ginori near his villa, though it does not appear to have produced wares for sale until 1746. It has ...

factory, as head designer and modeller, and manager of the plant. Continuing great models both in pots and in the majolica, he was awarded medal of collaboration at the 1873 Exposition of Vienna. He branched out on his own, opening in 1874 the Porta San Frediano, a factory of

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

statuettes, producing of glazed majolica in different genres both ancient and modern. Torelli needed a special furnace for his work, and designed the cylindrical furnace himself. Torelli made a stucco statuary group of an episode of the

Battle of Palestro The Battle of Palestro was fought on 30–31 May 1859 between the Austrian Empire and the combined forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont and France. The Franco-Piedmontese forces were victorious. It was fought just south to Palestro, a town i ...

, with Vittorio Emanuele on horseback leading a charge, and the Zouaves dissuading him from entering into the danger. In 1873, he was awarded at Vienna; in 1877, in Naples and Florence; in 1878 again in Vienna and in Paris. At the Melbourne and in Sydney (Australia) expositions, he was conferred a first class medal. In 1881 at Florence, he was awarded two silver medals by the Society of Horticulture, and in 1883, the same Society gave him a first class medal. At the 1889 Exposition of Horticulture, he exhibited a ''Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari''. ''Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti''
by Angelo de Gubernatis. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 520-523.

References

1898 deaths Year of birth missing Italian potters 19th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze alumni Academic staff of Accademia Albertina 19th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-sculptor-stub