Raffaele Spizzico Biography
Raffaele Spizzico was born in Bari in 1912 and was introduced to the world of art by Maestro Nicola Rega, his maternal grandfather, a highly renowned skilled sacred decorator. He began his artistic career as a young man in his grandfather's workshop and subsequently, in 1939, he opened the "Spizzico Ceramiche" laboratory at number 18 of Piazza Ferrarese. From that moment on, many of his works would become masterpieces scattered throughout the city and the Puglia region.
The Palace of the Residence of the Regional Council on the Nazario Sauro seafront hosts works by the Spizzico brothers, such as the panels dating back to the 1970s which represent rights and justice respectively, and with large open wings, donated to the community by the heirs.
Compared to his brother Francesco, with whom he collaborated, Raffaele was more inclined towards painting, which he alternated with other arts. With one hundred and fifty of his cataloged works retracing his long journey, exhibited in a retrospective in the rooms of the Castle of Bari which witnessed the cultural fervor of the recovery.
It can be seen how his artistic maturation developed through a complex process that began with the archaic Murgia and continued with modern French impressionist painting. Before Raffaele Spizzico, in fact, there was no markedly Apulian pictorial tradition.
The artist's last great masterpiece, at the beginning of the wall, are the gates of Palazzo Andidero, the first seat of the regional department of culture. These are magnificent gates created by Raffaele Spizzico alone, ten years after Francesco's death in 1981. They are small caged bronze tiles, arranged in a dynamic play of full and empty spaces. In the work there is also a face of a woman, the goddess Pomona, who is recurring in Spizzico's production and who represents the Roman goddess of fruits, symbol of abundance and prosperity. It is a creation that represents the pinnacle of their entire style.
