Ferruccio Mengaroni (Pesaro, 4th of October 1875 – Monza, 13th of May, 1925)

Born in Pesaro the 4th of October 1875, to Romolo, engineer and professor of the Technical Institute, and Teresa Giuliani, Ferruccio Mengaroni interested himself in ceramic art at a really young age, after being expelled from ‘every school of the Kingdom’ for throwing an inkwell at his teacher.
After entering as an apprentice at the Molaroni workshop of ceramic arts, Mengaroni doesn’t take much to show his capabilities, and after various experiences – around 1896 he directed the Antonibon manufacture, one of the oldest in Italy – he opened his first workshop in his home in viale Zara (once called viale Castelfidardo). Together with Aristodemo Mancini he opened another in viale Trento in 1915, in the complex of the current ‘Castiglione’, the Ceramic Art Study (S.D.A.C.), then transformed in M.A.P. (Artistic Majoliche from Pesaro), drawing clients from all of Italy and overseas.

Acclaimed as the ‘prince of maiolicari’, Ferruccio Mengaroni dies the 13th of May 1925 in Monza during the preparation of the second Biennial of Decorative Arts, crushed by the box containing his masterpiece, the monumental statue of the Medusa, today kept in the entrance of the Civic Museum in Mosca Palace.