Antonio D'Andrea. Art craft project

That in Lecce, in addition to Lecce stone, wrought iron was also "noble" was perhaps better known in the second half of the twentieth century. The passing of the years has then clouded this art, as old as the history of man but, on closer inspection, the traces of this craftsmanship can still be seen along the streets. The beautiful canopy of the Risorgimento Hotel, the street lamps of the Bank of Italy, the lunettes of the post office building are an example. Antonio D'Andrea (1908-1955), workshop manager of the wrought iron section at the Royal School of Art of Lecce and, subsequently, director of the Art Institute of Galatina, is among the masters who made "battiferri" of real artists. It was he, at the head of a group of students, who included the elements of Art Nouveau in the forging together with those of the Lecce Baroque, thus obtaining a valuable and harmonious style that made the fortune of wrought iron in Lecce. A small revolution that gave the art of wrought iron the dignity of "superior art". "Antonio D'Andrea. Art crafts project "is the exhibition, curated by Brizia Minerva, Michele Afferri and Antonio Marrazza, which the biblio-museum complex proposes in the spaces of the Castromediano Museum to continue the research and promotion of the protagonists of the history of art of Terra d ' Otranto between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Documents, drawings, projects, artefacts in wrought, embossed and forged iron, focus on the singular figure of Antonio D'Andrea, sculptor, craftsman and engraver of iron, who was able to constantly combine artistic research with artisan knowledge.

The exhibition is open until September 30th.

Hours: Tuesday to Friday 19-21; Saturday 16-21; Sunday 10-21.

Info: 0832/373572.