Antonio Borsato 1905-1981 Italian Porcelain Artist

Borsato loved womenm, as most Italian men do. He created all kinds of women, both secular and religious. His hero was Titian, the renaissance painter. Borsato went to the museums and sat for hours copying Titian paintings. You can see Titian paintings of Madonna and Child throughout Borsato's women. Borsato made wall plaques in an effort to combine Titian's wall paintings with his 3-D figurines.

The question is often asked what is "Gres" and why is the word Gres on the metallic labels on the bottom of the figurines. Here is the explanation. Customs requires a description of the material when it's leaving the country. Borsato manufactured both Porcelain and pottery. It is correct but not attractive. They did not like the word pottery for a figurine. It sounded too "fragile" for a figurine, especially the fingers and other thin parts. Also the Italian words for pottery are too ling. Then somebody thought of the word Gres, which means soft or grey. Customs accepted the word Gres and the rest is history.

Pottery is more fragile than porcelain but Borsato did not have a electric kiln which could not reach the high temperatures that porcelain required. He had a wood-burning kiln which could not reach the high temperature needed for porcelain. But then a deal was made with a distributor to loan the money to buy an electric kiln. And the Gres (pottery) was discontinued but the customs labels still remained, Porcellane e Gres d'Arte.

There are many figurines with the Borsato name which are of a completely different style. Borsato did experiment with several different styles and so don't be surprised if you come across one or more. He also made several functional items such as lamps, plates, mirror frames, porcelain shelving, etc.

Borsato was a modern day renaissance man. To top it off he also had his own vineyard. He made his own wine and sent out several battles to each distributor at Christmas.