It was the spring of 1973 when Serafino Zilli, together with his brother Quinzio, was caught by the then parish priest of Cerqueto Don Nicola Jobbi organizing a small orchestra with the few means at their disposal so they could accompany the work of construction workers building a hotel: they simulated woodwind instruments with their hands and a comb, with expertise that amazed the ethnographer priest and those who have subsequently listened to the unusual recordings.

Such musical inspiration was the sign of an artistic sensitivity inherited in the family, which has made Serafino and Quinzio Zilli very skillful designers and stonecutters, enthusiastic manipulators of materials, musicians and repairers. “We were born with drawing skills, my brother Quinzio and I”, says Serafino; instead they both learned the art of chiseling from their father Alberto, who had also learnt from his family. The passion for drawing accompanied Serafino since childhood; when he went to school as a teenager, he remained awake until late to draw shapes and figures together with his brother. He observed images and works in the books that circulated in the family, which today he preserves jealously, such as a volume that belonged to his grandfather and which was then handed down to his father: Li cinque ordini di architettura (The five orders of architecture), by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, in an edition of 1897 which is full of drawings that he continually consults to get more inspiration for decorations in bas-relief, stands, columns, capitals, friezes and ceiling roses.

From his paternal grandfather Amedeo Zilli, progenitor of the family of stonecutters, he also inherited the ancient chisel, which was used in Rome to carve the stone decorations of the Palace of Justice in Piazza Cavour, the so-called “Palazzaccio”, and also in the Vatican, when as a young man he went there to learn the craft of stone carving from Neapolitan sculptors. On returning to Fràttoli Amedeo put what he had learned to good use, carving stone for the construction of houses, religious buildings and decorations. In 1897 he sculpted a votive niche in his town, dedicated to Saint Anthony, out of a single block of stone ; then he created the monumental window of his house, made in the style of the windows of the “Palazzaccio” to remind him of the work done in Rome. In 1931 he was called to rebuild the bell tower of the church in Padula, which he built in blocks of carved stone together with his seven sons, working on the site for about two years.

Serafino’s father and teacher, Alberto Zilli, Amedeo’s direct heir carved many works in the Laga area: numerous fireplaces, the Pavone Fountain in Alvi and the windows of the church in Cesacastina. His son learned the art by observing and experimenting, through a direct apprenticeship.

Serafino Zilli sculpts tirelessly outdoors, according to a tradition that obliged the stonecutters to work under canopies, except in the coldest months, when due to the temperature the stone became too difficult to handle. He makes soup tureens, mortars, architraves, capitals, columns, volutes, cups with geometric, phytomorphic or zoomorphic motifs, with scenes from sacred or ancient history, of which he preserves countless models, templates, drawings and prints, in his own collections or in the books that accompany him daily in his work of continuous documentation and constructive experimentation. He is attracted by engravings and paintings, ancient and Renaissance sculptures, architectural drawings, the shapes of leaves, frames and various decorative styles.

He describes the most frequent processes, like the orange peel effect bush hammering and making grooves with the awl (lu puntarulë). He shows us his chisels (lu scarapillë), of various sizes and types: the diamond shape chisel for removing stone , the three-point chisel for engraving multiple lines of excavation and the fine point chisel for making the so-called capelli (hair) or very thin lines. He has several types of hammer, from the shortest one to a much larger one for heavy operations, and also various sizes of rasps, used for shaping the soft Majella stone, which he occasionally uses to create different types of objects and sculptures with the help of additional carpentry chisels, of a much more delicate quality and more suitable for working with such a soft stone. Instead, the pietra serena sandstone, “eats” the chisel, it consumes it, and to make it effective again it is necessary to have it sharpened by a blacksmith from time to time.

When Serafino Zilli terminates his works, he pours himself a glass of wine and observes them, thinking about how many blows were needed to achieve them. He speaks of them as creatures from which it is finally necessary to separate as they “leave” to go to their various destinations.