Photoceramic portraits - Un unsuspected cultural heritage

Photoceramic developed in France in 1854 as a decorating technique for pottery. Soon, it was employed to realize accurate enamel portrait miniatures for the living and to represent the dead by adorning their gravestones and tombs with evocative portraits. Even though photoceramics may be regarded as a minor art when compared to funerary masterpieces of great artists, nonetheless it is an important piece of a country’s cultural heritage. Images allow to retrace habits and customs of the past and present, and even changes in fashion or lifestyle, and are an important legacy to future generations.