ARTIGIANATO

ARTISANAL WORK. – Small-scale industry carried on by the owner with the help of a few employees.

I. DEFINITION

Many attempts have been made to define the term “artisan,” but no full agreement has ever been reached. At present, a special commission, created within the International Union of Artisanal and Small and Medium Enterprises, is collecting documentation on the subject with a view to arriving at an international definition of the figure of the artisan. On the national level, the same definition is under study and will have to be based on the nature of the business, its size, the predominance of manual labor, the number of employees, and the nature of the individual processes. Taking all this into account, with a great deal of approximation, it can be stated that an artisan is the professional qualification of one who, in the field of production, works only with the help of family members or a few employees, impressing upon the product the mark of his skill and hand.

II. HISTORICAL OUTLINE

The origins of artisanal work are lost in the first achievements of man, when, with the working of stone, wood, bone, and horn, he forged the first objects suggested by need and later modified by function. From his hands came, first, weapons and household tools, and then, gradually, rudimentary items of clothing and furniture. As nomadism declined, permanent dwellings arose, and with the house came increased needs and the development of a sense of beauty: terracotta appeared in its various forms, and decoration began to embellish products; the working of metals began. In these epochs, man was naturally an artisan.

There has been, and there could not be, any break in continuity throughout the centuries, and it can be affirmed that artisanal work has never experienced true periods of decline, inasmuch as it divided into two broad branches (ordinary artisanal work and artistic artisanal work) so that when one branch did not make progress, the other gave us the splendor of the mosaics of Romanesque basilicas or the engraving of sacred vessels and armor of the 1500s. Conversely, when artistic artisanal work seemed to decline, the tireless ingenuity and keen intuition of the masters of art provided us with perfect tools and techniques to ensure that woolen fabrics, damasks, or products of the new printing press achieved a level of excellence not reached or surpassed by the most advanced modern industry.

However, the golden age of artisanal activities unfolded in the centuries of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The people became conscious of their value, saw in productive activities the guarantee of their livelihood and the source of their strength. They opposed the arrogance and pretensions of the nobility, affirming at the same time their right to political freedom and to the freedom of labor and trade. The guild was the instrument that brought about this profound social revolution: communal life, gathered within the well-fortified walls of the city, offered the artisan great opportunities to assert himself. There was no lack of masters, nor of journeymen and apprentices. The destruction of castles, the abolition of tolls, and the relative safety of the roads allowed for relations with the most distant countries, and artisans and merchants united against their common enemy—the nobility—and gave the Commune a life of industry, wealth, and power (v. CORPORATION; MONASTERY; TRADE SCHOOL).

The development of mechanical progress and the alarming rise of the machine have undoubtedly limited the field of work for the artisan. The artisan no longer holds the dominant position he once did in the production of goods. Yet, reduced though his field of activity may be, what he has lost in breadth he has gained in quality.

The artisan’s activity is not limited to the production of new objects; it also extends to the repair and restoration of those already in existence. The artisan’s practical and keen intelligence doubles or triples the life of an object through his modest and precious work. From footwear to clothing, from the most common household objects to the restoration of works of art, from the repair and overhaul of engines and machines in general to the regeneration and repair of tires, there is no sector in which the artisan’s skill does not play a vital role.

A shoe, for example, may often come from a factory, but how many times is it necessary to resort to the work of a shoemaker before declaring it worn out? The same reasoning can be applied to kitchen utensils, clothing, tires, typewriters, watches, and lighters, and one will see how great is the wealth that is not lost thanks to the work of perhaps a patient seamstress or a hardworking and enterprising blacksmith.

This activity does not confer titles of nobility or glory in the world of production, but it constitutes a valuable collaboration even for industry.

It can therefore be concluded that artisanal work is not a productive sector but a way of producing applicable to all productive sectors.

A revealing sign of the enduring nature of artisanal work is the tendency of markets that have developed mechanical progress to the highest degree and, consequently, imposed mass-produced goods on consumers: the countries of America, for example, demand artisanal products from the nations of the Old World and encourage the immigration of master craftsmen.

Uniform products tire the consumer, and even the North American consumer seeks for his home furniture of artisanal craftsmanship, ceramic tableware, or at least

handmade items.

III. ARTISANAL WORK AND INDUSTRY

The position of the industrial product in relation to the artisanal product can be summarized as follows: the industrial product is a mass-produced, standard product that, although it may not meet the taste or particular needs of anyone, can satisfy the needs of all. The artisanal product is a quality product; not the anonymous object that comes out in thousands of identical copies from the machine, but the object that bears the mark of the hand that produced it and meets the particular aesthetic or practical needs of the person who commissioned it or purchased II. Industry represents the bulk of production, while artisanal work has remained on the margins of this, a margin more or less significant depending on the sector under consideration. For example: in artistic trades, such as goldsmithing and clothing, a wide field has remained for artisanal work. In some typical trades, industry has been unable to compete at all, while in various activities related to clothing, and particularly in the making of clothing, the artisan resists the mass-produced product victoriously.

On the other hand, where the product has a predominantly instrumental function and what is chiefly required is low price for mass consumption and uniform types that meet the practical needs of modern life, industry has reduced artisanal work to a minimum. This can be seen, for example, in metalworking, in the textile and printing arts, and in construction.

The achievements of science and technology, however, have opened up new fields and given rise to new trades: electrical engineering, mechanics, the development and spread of precision instruments, and the art of photography have given artisans the means to assert their capabilities in keeping with the times.

Our considerations also leave out the vast and intense work that artisans perform in repairing industrial products and those damaged by use. From footwear to clothing, from the most common household objects to the restoration of works of art, from the repair and overhaul of engines and machines in general to the regeneration and repair of tires, there is no sector in which the artisan’s practical and keen intelligence does not double or triple the life of an object with his modest and precious work.

Today the shoe often comes from a factory, but how many times must the work of the shoemaker-artisan be called upon before we declare it worn out? The same reasoning may be applied to kitchen utensils, garments, tyres, typewriters, watches and cigarette lighters; and one will see how great is the wealth that is not lost thanks to the patient seamstress or the industrious and enterprising blacksmith.

This activity does not confer titles of nobility or glory in the world of production, yet it constitutes a valuable collaboration even for industry.

It may therefore be concluded that the artisan sector is not a separate branch of production but a mode of production applicable to all productive sectors.

A revealing sign of the enduring nature of craftsmanship is the tendency of markets that have developed mechanical progress to the fullest extent and consequently imposed mass-produced goods on consumers: the countries of America, for example, seek artisanal products from the nations of the Old World and encourage the immigration of master craftsmen.

Uniform products tire the consumer, and even the North American seeks for his home furniture of artisanal make, ceramic tableware or at least some original ornament fashioned by an Italian, French or Flemish master.

IV. PERSONAL CHARACTER OF CRAFTSMANSHIP

The artisan represents the highest affirmation of human personality in the world of production: whether decorator, engraver, tailor or carpenter, he embodies within himself the fundamental elements of production: labour, technique and capital. His intellectual faculties, his muscles, all his financial resources are bent to the productive effort, and he brings to his work the passion of one who feels that his life’s success and his family’s future are bound up with this toil.

In the artisan’s workshop there work the master craftsman, a few apprentices and sometimes a journeyman. Very often there are neither apprentices nor journeymen, but only the artisan’s sons and grandsons who learn the trade handed down for centuries from father to son. The machine in the artisan’s workshop is a precious aid to spare the roughest labours of preparation, yet it is never the very instrument of the work itself. Apprentices and workers live in uninterrupted contact with one another within a few square metres: the master craftsman is with them, directing and teaching as he works.

V. SOCIAL ASPECT

Social unrest may brush past, yet it does not overwhelm the artisan’s workshop, which stands as an oasis of peace. In the artisan family unemployment is normally unknown; women artisans can work in their own homes without neglecting domestic duties; women’s work often supplements the insufficient earnings of the head of the household, and in rural areas it has a seasonal character. In the winter months, when every agricultural activity is at rest, the woman artisan works, and from her hands come forth lace and embroidery of noble craftsmanship or fine handwoven fabrics. Likewise, the peasant, in the ‘dead season,’ often becomes a repairer of ploughs and harrows, a cooper or a carpenter.

Craftsmanship thus represents a happy solution to the social problem. It is a precious complement to farm work, ensuring financial stability for the rural family; it permits, in the many varieties of home-based work, the orderly life of the family without drawing women into factories; trades such as seamstress, embroiderer, mender and knitter are at once a source of income and a defence of femininity.

Trades such as tailor, furrier, cravat-maker, glovemaker and not a few others give us the ideal type of family business, uniting the men and women, the young and the maidens of the same household in a productive activity.

Owing to its markedly personal and familial character, craftsmanship has always enjoyed favourable consideration both in Christian social doctrine and in the social movements inspired by II.

VI. POLITICAL ASPECT

The deep sense of individualism — which the very nature of their activity awakens in artisans — has not prevented craftsmanship from asserting itself in social and political life through the centuries, by means of professional organisations whose memory still commands admiration.

We must first note that, from the most ancient times, craftsmanship flourished in an atmosphere of freedom. In the East as in the West, in Greece as in Rome, the free class was constituted by artisans and merchants. The Roman plebs was in its great majority made up of artisans. During the Middle Ages the communal liberties found their economic expression in the arts and crafts. Even today a political community is all the less exposed to sliding into tyrannical regimes insofar as craftsmanship flourishes within II.

VII. CRAFTSMANSHIP IN ITALY TODAY

Italy has always been, even in the past, a classical land of craftsmanship, both because of the markedly individualistic character of its inhabitants and because of the glorious traditions in this field that stretch back into the distant centuries. Even today craftsmanship plays a very notable part in Italy’s economic and social life. According to the census of 1936, there were in Italy 993,840 artisans — with and without employees — of whom 803,622 were men and 190,218 women. Artisan enterprises number about 800,000, and those who live on their income amount to around four million. During the Second World War, owing to the difficulty of obtaining raw materials, even in Italy artisanal activities suffered a decline and came to a standstill; yet once hostilities ceased, they quickly recovered, and promising outlets seem to open before them, especially in the Americas.

VIII.