Italian Glass and Brass Chandelier by Gio Ponti & Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte
View Similar Items
Italian Glass and Brass Chandelier by Gio Ponti & Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte
About the Item
- Creator:Fontana Arte (Manufacturer),Gio Ponti (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Diameter: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1935
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: FA351stDibs: LU793511409341
Gio Ponti
An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.
Ponti designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, mirrors and chairs to ceramics and coffeemakers — and his buildings, including the brawny Pirelli Tower (1956) in his native Milan, and the castle-like Denver Art Museum (1971), were erected in 14 countries. Through Domus, the magazine he founded in 1928, Ponti brought attention to virtually every significant movement and creator in the spheres of modern art and design.
The questing intelligence Ponti brought to Domus is reflected in his work: as protean as he was prolific, Ponti’s style can’t be pegged to a specific genre.
In the 1920s, as artistic director for the Tuscan porcelain maker Richard Ginori, he fused old and new; his ceramic forms were modern, but decorated with motifs from Roman antiquity. In pre-war Italy, modernist design was encouraged, and after the conflict, Ponti — along with designers such as Carlo Mollino, Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso — found a receptive audience for their novel, idiosyncratic work. Ponti’s typical furniture forms from the period, such as the wedge-shaped Distex chair, are simple, gently angular, and colorful; equally elegant and functional. In the 1960s and ’70s, Ponti’s style evolved again as he explored biomorphic shapes, and embraced the expressive, experimental designs of Ettore Sottsass Jr., Joe Colombo and others.
Ponti's signature furniture piece — the one by which he is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Germany’s Vitra Design Museum and elsewhere — is the sleek Superleggera chair, produced by Cassina starting in 1957. (The name translates as “superlightweight” — advertisements featured a model lifting it with one finger.)
Ponti had a playful side, best shown in a collaboration he began in the late 1940s with the graphic artist Piero Fornasetti. Ponti furnishings were decorated with bright finishes and Fornasetti's whimsical lithographic transfer prints of things such as butterflies, birds or flowers; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts possesses a 1950 secretary from their Architetturra series, which feature case pieces covered in images of building interiors and facades. The grandest project Ponti and Fornasetti undertook, however, lies on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean: the interiors of the luxury liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Widely praised retrospectives at the Queens Museum of Art in 2001 and at the Design Museum London in 2002 sparked a renewed interest in Ponti among modern design aficionados. (Marco Romanelli’s monograph, which was written for the London show, offers a fine overview of Ponti’s work.) Today, a wide array of Ponti’s designs are snapped up by savvy collectors who want to give their homes a touch of Italian panache and effortless chic.
Find a range of vintage Gio Ponti desks, dining chairs, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Fontana Arte
Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, the Milan-based firm Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.
The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design. He contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.
The following year, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.
Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.
Find vintage Fontana Arte lighting fixtures such as pendants, table lamps and more on 1stDibs.
- Italian Midcentury Modern Brass & Glass Pendant by Pietro Chiesa & Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in New York, NYElegant, timeless Italian Mid-Century Modern Neoclassical brass and sanitized glass chandelier / pendant by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte, circa 1935-1940. The piece features a uni...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
$7,900 Sale Price20% Off - Italian Modern Neoclassical Glass Chandelier by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana ArteBy Pietro Chiesa, Fontana ArteLocated in New York, NYAn elegant, sober Italian midcentury pendant / chandelier designed by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte in the Modern Neoclassical Style (Novecento) with six fluted arms in enameled met...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- Italian Midcentury Glass Chandelier or Pendant by Max Ingrand for Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Max IngrandLocated in New York, NYRare Italian Mid-Century Modern chandelier / pendant / fixture by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte in double saucer form with opaque, satin green glass in a textured pattern. A 3 part ta...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Italian Gilt Bronze & Crystal Chandelier Attr. Pietro Chiesa for Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in New York, NYElegant Italian Mid-Century gilt bronze and crystal chandelier in the Modern Neoclassical spirit. The gilt bronze frame is arranged in a circle and composed of alternating sober tor...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsCrystal, Bronze
$11,900 Sale Price20% Off - Italian Midcentury Bronze and Murano Glass Pendant or Lantern by Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in New York, NYRare and exceptional Italian Mid-Century Modern bronze and hand blown Murano or Venetian glass chandelier or pendant or lantern by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte. A unique piece o...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBronze
- Rare Pair of Italian Glass & Brass' Table Lamps by Pietro Chiesa & Fontana ArteBy Fontana ArteLocated in New York, NYA rare and elegant pair of Italian Mid-Century Modern 'Astrolabe' table lamps by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte reflecting the Italian Modern Neoclassical movement of the 1930-1940 p...Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Rare Ceiling Light by Gio Ponti and Pietro Chiesa for Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Pietro Chiesa, Gio PontiLocated in Los Angeles, CARare Ceiling Light by Gio Ponti and Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte. Designed and manufactured in Italy, circa the 1930s. Unique sculptural 'Saturn' ceiling light, with an illustrativ...Category
Vintage 1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Fontana Arte Clear Rose Glass Chandelier Atributed to Pietro Chiesa Italy, 1940sBy Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in Frankfurt am Main, DEOne of kind Fontana Arte horizontal chandelier designed and Manufactured in Italy, 1940s, atributed to Pietro Chiesa, one of the leading glass artists of Italian Art Deco, known for ...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Art Deco Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Midcentury Chandelier Brass & Glass Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte, Italy 1950sBy Pietro Chiesa, Fontana ArteLocated in Rome, ITMidcentury chandelier in brass and glass attributed to Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte. Made in Italy in the 1950s. The chandelier features three E 14 light bulbs.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Italian Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte Inspired ChandelierBy Max Ingrand, Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in Houston, TXItalian Pietro Chiesa For Fontana Arte inspired chandelier. This striking large scale Italian modernist chandelier has six lights and is made of brass with a frosted glass bottom pa...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Pietro Chiesa Mid-century Italian Glass and Brass Chandelier by Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Pietro ChiesaLocated in Puglia, PugliaThis midcentury glass and brass chandelier was designed by Pietro Chiesa for Fontana Arte in the 1940s. The Italian Art Deco d...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
$2,391 Sale Price20% Off - Fontana Arte Murano Glass and Brass Italian Chandelier, Pietro Chiesa, 1940sBy Pietro Chiesa, Fontana ArteLocated in Roma, ITMagnificent Italian large chandelier in solid brass and engraved Murano crystal glass. This fantastic piece was designed by Pietro Chiesa in Italy during the 1940s for Fontana Arte. ...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Barnaba Fornasetti’s Hallucinatory House Has His Father’s Spirit
Behind a nondescript facade in northeastern Milan is the magical residence of Barnaba Fornasetti. It's a shrine to the style developed by his design-legend father, which still defies categorization.
Billy Cotton Layers His Interiors with Lived-In Comfort
The Brooklyn-based designer is adept at styles ranging from austere to over-the-top, espousing an architectural, detail-oriented approach also evident in his line of furniture and lighting.