Venice roars, Venice the lady of enchantment and splendour, Venice the womb of magnificence for itself and for the strides of its children.
Maniago, our land, was a reflection and projection of the Serenissima; Venice was the gracious wing for our flight, the wet-nurse for our culture, the deliverance for our work. Its closeness and its dominion cradled the genesis of our creative breath and of our artistic maturity.
“Al tuo gran regno alla tua eccelsa sede, pria che soggetta io mostrai la fede” [“To your great kingdom to your sublime seat, before subjugating I showed faith”], this is how Pomponio Amalteo expressed his gratitude in 1570 to Venice about the Palazzo Attimis fresco, almost a poetic declaration that can be found in each and every artistic work in Venice, from the statues of the Duomo to the altar-piece in churches, from the genius of the optician Lorenzo Selva (1716-c. 1790), inventor of the first binocular, to the excellent technique of the architect Gianantonio Selva (1753-1819), son of Domenico and designer of the Venice “La Fenice” theatre, both natives of our city. Honour was also brought to Maniago by Angelo Salmistro (1754-1839), the teacher of Foscolo and son of the Salesian Natale Dalmistro who compiled the first Italian-Persian dictionary, without forgetting Fabio II (1774-1842), representative of the family of Maniago counts, superior administrator, historian and man of art and of the Enlightenment movement culture, author of the famous essay on the History of the Fine Arts of Friuli.
And this is how art became history at Maniago.
Art is the value of a land, a vital tale, eternal protection. Art and the culture of work are the wealth
of a land and a stimulation for men to grow. In it we find strength, respect and the memories
of a tradition that began far back in time and it creates history every day.
Today RGM is the living witness of an antique art, that of the Maniago blacksmith of the sixteenth
century who, under the Venetian domain, forged weapons for the republican fleet and, being a
“fine-work blacksmith”, concentrated grace and precision in minute and highly detailed items.
The people working at RGM knew just how to use this precious heritage, refining it with new
techniques, new solutions, new applications. With all the secrets of that art we opened up to the
official art, sharing the final goals and working together with the artists to make the steel tools
and instruments for painting, sculpting and restoration work. For almost half a century, supported
by high precision technologies, by the constant research in materials and forms, we have combined
creativity and technique in the production of one of the most comprehensive ranges of tools that
exists and which has made us known and appreciated the world over.