The majolica pieces Roberto Bonechi brings into the USA from Puglia are recklessly odd. They are immensely amusing and quirky. They derive from a long history of ceramic statuary in Southern Italy. Here are Goddesses and heroines and animal totems reminding us of pre Christian times when the Greeks arrived in Italy and began making ceramics in caves in this area.

Much of the ceramics in ancient Puglia were urns and other containers for wheat, oil, olives, and wine. These same shapes are still made there. Bonechi likes to think of the many candlesticks we import as gracing altars, burning oil for safe travel and large harvests and large schools of fish.