Vitale Barberis Canonico

The mosaic on the facade of the Lanificio Vitale Barberis Canonico building contains a sort of literal play on on words: in Italian the word for mosaic tiles – tessere – is the same as the infinitive of verb to weave: what goes on inside the mill. Indeed the mosaic’s creator Otto Maraini loved playing with shapes, words and symbols; it could be said that all of his work was a form of play. Even when, in 1958, he visited these parts for the last time, taking on what was to be his last industrial commission. Otto Maraini (1904-1970) was… it’s hard to say what he was, or rather who he was… Those who have studied his work at length have come to the conclusion that he is magnificently indefinable. Otto Maraini: architect, artist, painter, poet, (misunderstood) genius… He was all of this and more, a weaver too. 

In 1958 the factory was given a new look, in Maraini’s signature style: austere and imaginative, rational and bucolic, sober and refined, classic and baroque. 

Maraini wove the tiles of his mosaic like yarns are interwoven, because the mosaic of the spinner is like a tapestry, a brocade of glass tiles intertwined to tell a story that is centuries long, and always the same. In the background, industry is represented, but the foreground depicts human endeavour, a young woman spinning yarn with a hand spindle: human creativity, transforming nature without denaturing it. The sheep at the spinner’s feet is docile and calm (with a rather knowing look on its face) because it has nothing to fear. 

The distaff reaches higher than the smoking chimney, and the transformation is being wrought by human hands, not machines: a hierarchy of significance. The young woman is depicted in Maraini’s typical style, with her hair blowing in the wind. She is shapely and feminine, yet with a strong, solid look about her. She could easily be a warrior or a musician, wielding a spear or playing a stringed instrument. She is an artist in her own right. Weaving is an art in itself.

The little squares and subtle colours in the mosaic can also be found in the materials in the Vitale Barberis Canonico Archives: the fabrics created that year have the same elements. Soft and reassuring, like the draped, form-fitting dress worn by the hardy spinner, crafted by Odorico of Turin (but originally from Sequals). The woollen-spun pile fabrics produced by Tonella in the summer of 1958 are like the ideal continuation of the artwork that animates the facade, on its slightly raised marble insert. That year, which was marked by the post-war reconstruction and the economic boom under way in Italy, Maraini proved capable of returning to classic figurative art, lending his image meaning without falling into the trap of nostalgia, and gently reminding the viewer of the rural origins of even the most advanced manufacturing. And Otto Maraini’s formal yet dynamic touch consummately offset the stark lines of the new building with the romantic vision of a shepherdess spinning yarn by hand.