Not Your Granny's Tableware: The Ceramics of Alessandro Merlin

 

Just about 50 meters from the church of San Martino, after you've crossed the iron Ponte Storto and followed Calle Pestrin as it curves away from Rio de la Ca' en Duo and heads in the direction of Piazza San Marco, you arrive at the bottega of ceramicist Alessandro Merlin. At the sight of a poor wretch with no protection from the harsh elements, San Martino famously cut his cloak in half to share it with him. But when it comes to uncloaking themselves the human figures in Merlin's work don't settle for half measures--and, boy, do the fellas look happy to see you! (or to be seen, as the case may be).

 

The assured yet whimsical line with which his figures are rendered might remind you of some of Picasso's menagerie and of his erotic works, but Merlin's animals tend to the aquatic, in keeping with Venice, and the mythology animating his erotica is of a much more recent vintage than Picasso's ancient minotaurs and goddesses: it's the classic beefcake and cheesecake pin-ups of the second half of the 20th century. 

 

Born in Piemonte, raised in Belluno, Merlin opened his bottega in Venice 25 years ago. Like nearly everyone in Venice (and not only in Venice) the pandemic has impacted both his life and livelihood. In the latter case, the more adventurous visitors who used to venture beyond Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge, and the afficianados of contemporary art who walked to and from the Biennale, have disappeared. And as Merlin admits to having little expertise and equally little interest in website construction he does not have an online store.

But that doesn't mean his one-of-a-kind pieces can't be ordered even now. He's experienced in shipping his pieces all over the world, so you need only contact him via his email address about purchasing something. He does not ship the large plates, but all of his cups and saucers, the mugs, serving trays and so forth can be (and have been) securely packed and shipped.

 

To inquire about ordering contact him at a.merlin@hotmail.it

Alessandro Merlin in his studio behind the display floor; at the right of the photo is his ceramic oven in which he fires his cups, saucers, smaller plates and trays

Surprises of a prickly sort sometimes await the drinker of coffee from one of Merlin's cups

 

In Merlin's shop window you can find an array of cups of which the great 16th-century writer (and Venetian resident) Pietro Aretino would certainly have approved

 

An example of one of Merlin's larger plates (which brings to mind the opening stanza of Yeats's "Sailing to Byzanium" about "The young in one another's arms... / The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, / Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long /Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.")

Merlin's shop window on Calle del Pestrin