Despite the inevitable exchanges due to the numerous peoples arriving from the sea, craftsmanship has taken on characteristics of uniqueness in Sardinia compared to that of any other Italian region, both because of the consistency and diffusion of the phenomenon, and because it constitutes one of the main creative forms of the island.

A fundamental prerequisite, in the various functional forms of the artifacts, is the constant use of the same decorative motifs, almost as if to underline the starting ideograms, a common alphabet that seems to allude to an autochthonous heritage, which shows its peculiar persistence in craftsmanship. This language of visual communication is today traced in signs but distorted in meanings (for example, the 'Phoenician rosette' in the current nomenclature has become 'flower', the original peacock 'hen' or 'cockerel'), and is originally a strongly symbolic language.
In fact, contrary to what is believed, that craftsmanship, not only Sardinian craftsmanship, was created only to provide answers to practical needs, its motivation often has a sacral origin, an aspect that is not secondary to the analysis of its genesis (for example, the filet network migrated from altars to domestic furnishings; the embroideries or fabrics of the pivials that can be found in traditional holiday clothes).

A geometric and synthetic lexicon pervades the signs and reduces to the essentials the morphology of fabrics, clothes, carvings, weaves, ceramics. Until shortly after National Unity (1861), the artifacts were destined mainly to the domestic market, strongly characterized and adapted to a type of rough and wild everyday life, historically crystallized in archaisms that were now outdated in modern Europe. Precisely their being “ancient”, wanting to preserve the characters that constitute their value, makes their re-functionalization in modern life difficult if not impossible.
In fact, with National Unity (1861), in fact, the process of cultural massification began in Sardinia, whose definitive work of globalization caused economic depression, the region escaped until the fifties of the twentieth century, finally aligning itself, two decades later, with the widespread internationalization that characterized the transition from the second to the third millennium.
However, since the twenties of the last century, the destiny of artisan production has been at stake on a political level: on the threshold of Modernism, the nation now saw craftsmanship as an obstacle to industrial growth, considered necessary for dialogue with other European nations, indicating artisanal artifacts as materials more suitable for the ethnographic museum, than for everyday use. In the years between the two world wars, with a strong push towards the future, for Sardinia (and with it for other areas of Italy) a destiny is being prepared that wants the leap from an archaic economy, based on the combination of agriculture and herding, to an industrialized society, without going through a “buffer” phase, as the history of other States teaches.

In 1929, to justify government attention to the craft sector, the ENAPI (National Authority for Crafts and Small Industries) was founded. His program is to channel the best forces, recruited among artists and designers, alongside them with capable artisans. The aim is to obtain an artifact that is the sum of two knowledge: content and technique. In Sardinia, given the extraordinary nature of its productions, ENAPI was replaced in 1957 by ISOLA (Sardinian Institute for Artisan Work Organization), with an exclusive Sardinian matrix, with the functions of promotion, distribution and sale of exclusive artifacts, offered under the new brand.
However, it seemed clear, already at the beginning of these choices, that Italian craftsmanship, including Sardinian craftsmanship, was given a minority role, almost nothing supported by the Government, which, in the most general facts, favored the systematic dismantling of the social assumptions that held their artisan roots firm: the abandonment of the countryside, emigration, urbanization, the dream of a permanent position in the factory. As proof of political responsibility, it is enough to observe how the National Museum of Ethnography was founded in Rome, after endless controversy, just in 1956 (and with it also the one in Nuoro, now part of the ISRE) and to note the absence in Italy, to this day, of a Museum of Applied Arts, a natural landing place for craftsmanship.

ISOLA could have represented a real opportunity for Sardinia, but the experiment missed its objectives, perhaps also because it focused too much on the personal choices and individual abilities of the two reference figures: Eugenio Tavolara and Ubaldo Badas. With their death (in 1963 the first, in 1985 the second) the dream of Sardinian craftsmanship ended, which, given the assumptions, could have constituted an opportunity for renewal in tradition.
To the balance sheet on cultural aspects, however, the consideration of a progressive increase in labor costs must be added, which, with the cessation of demand, has decreed the disappearance of some expressions such as cork containers, some types of weaving, furniture upholstery, leaving ample space for industrial or semi-industrial processes or, again, accelerating production times at the total expense of quality.

Artifacts of ancient Sardinian craftsmanship can be seen in Nuoro, in the Museum of Sardinian Life and Popular Traditions; in Rome, in the National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions (EUR); in Sassari, in the National Archaeological Museum “G. A. Sanna”.


Bibliography by
G.U. Arata-G. Biasi, Arte Sarda, Milan, Treves, 1935;
V. Mossa, Sardinian Craftsmanship, Sassari, 1983; The Sanna Museum in Sassari, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1986;

The Ethnographic Museum of Nuoro, Cinisello Balsamo, A. Pizzi, 1987 National Art Gallery of Cagliari, catalog, vol.
II, Cagliari, Pisano, 1990; Reasoned
Guide to Sardinian Artistic Craftsmanship, Cagliari, 1992; M. Marini-M.L.
Ferru, History of Ceramics in Sardinia, Cagliari, 1993
Textura in Sardegna, catalog, Cagliari, ISOLA, 1994;
M.L. Wagner, Rustic Life, curated by G. Paulis, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1996; M. Marini, Craftsmanship on Show.
ISOLA 1957-1997, Cagliari, 1997;
A. Cuccu, One Hundred Years of Ceramics, Nuoro 2000 Costumes.
History, language and perspectives of clothing in Sardinia, Nuoro, Ilisso, 2003; Jewelry.
History, language, religiosity of the ornament in Sard Egna, Nuoro, Ilisso, 2004; Pani.
Tradition and prospects of baking in Sardinia, Ilisso, Nuoro