Laboratorium di Mario Romagnoli: The Artist

All "Laboratorium" products are hand-made by Mario Romagnoli using traditional techniques. The artist lives and works in Valentano, where he has his workshop and Show Room.

A graduate of the Rome Academy of Fine Arts and the "Tuscia" School of Art in Viterbo, Mario Romagnoli carried out pictorial research into oil-painting, frescoes and coloured plasterwork and created numerous pieces that feature in major collections throughout Italy.
In 1978 he was appointed to teach Pictorial Technique at the "Lorenzo da Viterbo" Academy of Fine Arts in Viterbo. A year later, again in Viterbo, he was also appointed to teach Figure Drawing at the "Tuscia" School of Art. His connection with the Academy of Fine Arts in Viterbo has continued over several years leading up to his present post teaching the Course in History and Restoration of Ceramics.

He had always had a fondness for restoration and in 1979 was given the opportunity to restore the frescoes in the Town Hall at Valentano and in a small 18^th century church nearby. Subsequently, in 1980, when retrieving pieces of mediaeval pottery from the Rocca Farnese in Valentano, he was entrusted with the task of restoring and making a study of all the antique ceramics found there.
This gave rise to a new passion – researching and studying antique mediaeval and Renaissance ceramics – as a result of which he has restored pieces for several Italian museums and has written numerous studies in collaboration with major experts on ceramics, from Italy and abroad.

At the museum in the Rocca Farnese, Valentano , he is restoring a remarkable collection of antique ceramics retrieved from the castle "dumps". He also has the task of cataloguing and exhibiting these finds. In addition he is restoring the mediaeval ceramics discovered in the tower of the Bolsena Museum in the Castello Monaldeschi; the collection in the Museum of Ceramics in Palazzo Brugiotti in Viterbo; and the Viterbese spice-jars, on which he is writing a text to be published by Wellcome, the English pharmaceutical company. These items have now been donated to the Palazzo Brugiotti Museum, Viterbo, where they are on display.
His love of restoration has been joined by another passion: reproducing the form, glaze and decoration of antique mediaeval and Renaissance pottery, paintings on canvas, details from frescoes and plaster paintings by many major Old Masters, which are available as sections of plaster on canvas, glass and wood.

In 1997 his research and production of artwork eventually gave rise to Laboratorium ,the individual trademark which today stands for quality of workmanship built on research, study and application of the traditional techniques used by potters and painters in the mediaeval and Renaissance periods. For over twenty years these have been the focus of research and restoration by teacher and artist Mario Romagnoli.