Anna Varignani, was born on 8 September 1945 in Foiano della Chiana, the father teacher – Remo Varignani - and the mother worching - Bianca Mencarelli -. Grows with the two sisters - Raffaella and Paola - and since it seems little interested in the DIY, crafts, sew, sketch, watercolor paints, until almost seventeen participating in a course in ceramics. The passion, the artistic vein burst overbearingly, so that the lead in Monte San Savino in search of work in one of the companies that time, we are around the early 60s, began to grow and to have a generational change. The young Anna begins to work, first as an apprentice at the workshop Ceramiche Giotto, and meets Araldo, who return from the period of military service, had just inherited the paternal shop from his father Giotto. Immediately out the love, the two also connected by the same passions for art and ceramics, are getting married in 1967 and the years immediately following born Arianna. The work goes well, the company grows, they are restored to the laboratory and shop, are recruited new helpers, more young that with the help of former employees learn quickly. Always continue to create the usual ceramic styles, sometimes with changes that make them more modern, lighter tones, the coatings. Anna brings a wave of innovation, starting to work with enamel, they start majolica items, no longer just a painting on engobes, the old way. And it is in the economic boom that was born the second son, Alessio, we are in'74. New ideas are developed and become reality with the "…We Meet", an exhibition-meeting in which participate the great Tuscan friend artists such as the silversmith Brandimarte , the sculptor Zazzeri, the photographer Passerini, the painter Droandi and many others; we Meet by Giotto, an event that from '78 to '8? combines in home-workshop of Le Fonti, great artisans that are compared, it stimulates, cooperate. Anna and Araldo participate in numerous exhibitions, which are expanding their technical and artistic knowledge, allowing them to create ever more beautiful works, unique pieces, unrepeatable that make them increasingly popular in the artistic field. Among these are the “Alphabet of Giotto”, the “Triptych of the Divine Comedy”, the “Dishes with Months” or more recent works, such as a “Anphora with strips”, the “enamel Bowls with Butterfly”, the “dish of St. Francis”, and many others. Is July 15 of 2002, when Anna after a brief but fulminant disease unfortunately early died, leaving an unbridgeable gap in the hearts of his loved ones and who has known and causing a serious loss for the art pottery Savines that has view to deprive of the ability of a skilled manual decorator.
In 1960 Araldo Giannoni, returning from the military, took the reins of the company. His father, the legendary Giotto, was ill. It was urgent to get young people to continue and to boost to the craft, by now well known throughout the world. In Foiano della Chiana was doing a course in ceramics; Araldo approached the students and their choice fell upon Anna. In the spring of 1962, not yet seventeen, was in Monte San Savino. In fact had only technical knowledge in ceramic, but soon fade to work, and with the enthusiasm that has marked all his life, entered the atmosphere and traditions of the "workshop". A store that could boast such clients as Wiston Churchill, Eisenhower, Montgomery, House of Savoy and had his works exhibited in major ceramic museums in the world. In addition to the job, even love: Anna married Araldo in 1967. Was a painter born, it was natural for her to decorate the pottery, with something innovative styles compared to the workshop. Favorite enamels and was his innovation of the majolica glaze. Used light colors, almost fuzzy, confused with the brightness of the background. And she never wanted to sign his work, signed only "GIOTTO MSS", as Giotto did precisely since 1919, when returning from World War I, the Silver Medal in Military Valor, wounded - was a bold - a member of “Institute of Nastro Azzurro”, had begun to make pottery. Anna had no hesitations the watercolour and the workload of the shop. He worked to the end, the will to live, even when subjected to painful treatments, led to go down in the lab to finish its work and begin new ones. Did not leave work unfinished. Sweet, good, cheerful, extroverted, had an excellent relationship with their children. The sensitivity of the stretch, characteristic of his life, found in his work. In his ceramics, you can always see his smile.
Angiolo Aldinucci
In more than three decades I have had many occasions to attend the workshop of "Giotto": as a studious of ceramics, as art critic, and as a friend to Araldo Giannoni, entitled "Giotto" for heredity, even to inheritance, the son of Giotto Giannoni founder of the famous shop of Monte San Savino. So I therefore have some way to write a few lines on the contribution that Anna Giannoni, wife of Araldo - which all of us that we have known we mourn today the untimely death - has given with his ceramist work to artistic growth and evolution of Laboratory savines. Anna does not turned, no model, not the stick worked. Decorated. His natural gift of a light and safe hand for the design, able to perform in docilely tip of a brush the curvilinear flights of its pictorial fantasies, predominantly floral: dish after dish, amphora after amphora, an entire story plant, italics and almost guided by the wind, slight color tone played on the agreements and the nuances, in which the petals and leaves, the cardoon and the ears, and the same birds and dragonflies, left transpire vibrant brightness of the fund, heaven or earth that was. A decoration - but I would rather say a painting - of unmistakable personality and absolute excellence, now rare in the shops of majolica. How can fans of Italian ceramics, decorative Savines tradition, perpetuated by the workshop of Giotto, is very different: polychrome of resoluted tone, wealth of symmetry geometrics, including flowers and little landscapes painted in the bottom of the dishes or the benches soup, but from sustained tones, often in contrast. Faithful to the parental and citizen legacy, Araldo has continued to play historical "Savines majolica", while developing in entirely new different figurative directions, even narrative and sacred subject, its aesthetic, with great success. At the same time, however, has always left Anna, although committed every day by his side in the production "primary" in the shop, also bring about the "engobe" or the enamel, its airy floral fantasies, almost surprising than all what in this corner of Tuscany had always done. Floral inventions, but not Liberty, not Art Nouveau, even herbarium illustrations. Floral, here, as could be the dreams of flowers and grasses where the flowers and herbs could dream. This is, in my opinion, the contribution - large, innovative, and now finally written in the historic pottery Savines – that Anna Giannon has been able to bring the poetry of majolica.
Giorgio Lilli Latino