Departures of note

Adelmo Cornacchia (c. 1930 – 2026) was an Italian ceramic artist renowned for his mastery of colour and glaze techniques. In 1957 he co‑founded the Bottega dei Ceramisti di Brisighella together with sculptor Walter Bartoli, creating a workshop that blended sculptural form with painterly surface treatment.

The workshop quickly became a benchmark of Romagna ceramic art, producing around thirty thousand pieces that were exhibited throughout Italy and abroad and forming a substantial part of the collection of the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza. Cornacchia’s work was distinguished by the use of gold, copper and vivid enamel, often applied to religious commissions.

He signed monumental ceramic programmes for about seventy churches worldwide, most famously the 1997 "Giudizio Universale" for the Church of San Lorenzo in Lugo, comprising 554 painted panels. He also created a nativity scene for the Brisighella Collegiate Church that was later gifted by Pope John Paul II to the cathedral of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Cornacchia remained a meticulous guardian of his artistic legacy, ordering the destruction of all workshop moulds after his death to prevent posthumous reproductions, and entrusting the archival material to art historian Carlo Serafini.