Gae Aulenti Piero & Castigilioni Fontana Arte Lampada Italiana da Terra Parola
About the Item
- Creator:
- Dimensions:Height: 80.71 in (205 cm)Diameter: 13.78 in (35 cm)
- Power Source:Hardwired
- Voltage:220-240v
- Lampshade:Included
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1980-1989
- Date of Manufacture:Circa 1980s
- Condition:Additions or alterations made to the original: Impianto elettrico rifatto nuovo. Rewired. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Reggio Emilia, IT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3388335042342
Gae Aulenti
The Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti will forever be best remembered for her work with museums, in particular her 1980–86 renovation of a Beaux Arts Paris train station to create the galleries of the Musée d’Orsay. Aulenti — whose first name, short for Gaetana, is pronounced “guy” — should also be recalled for her tough intellectual spirit and for working steadily when few women found successful architectural careers in postwar Italy.
After she graduated from the Milan Polytechic in 1954, Aulenti opened an architectural office. She also joined the staff of the progressive architectural magazine Casabella, whose editorial line was that the establishment, orthodox modernism of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus, had outlived it usefulness. When their movement for fresh approaches to architecture and design received a sympathetic hearing, Aulenti found patrons — most prominently Gianni Agnelli, of Fiat, who later employed her to renovate the Palazzo Grassi in Venice for use as an arts exhibition space.
Commissions for showrooms and other corporate spaces brought Aulenti to furniture design. She felt that furniture should never dominate a room. Her chairs and sofas — low-slung, with rounded enameled metal frames and ample seats — and tables, particularly her 1972 marble Jumbo coffee table for Knoll, project solidity and sturdiness. In lighting design, however, Aulenti is bravura.
Each work has a marvelous sculptural presence. Pieces such as her Pipistrello table lamp and Quadrifoglio pendant are a perfect marriage of organically shaped glass and high-tech fixtures. Others have a futuristic elegance — and some even have a touch of personality. Aulenti’s Pileino and La Ruspa table lamps each look almost like little robots. Her lighting pieces are an artful grace note in the career of a woman who believed in strength.
Find vintage Gae Aulenti armchairs, 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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Reggio Emilia, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Guido Rosati for Fontana Arte "Fatua" Table Lamp in Blown Glass 1970sBy Guido Maria Rosati, Fontana ArteLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITItalian table lamp model "Fatua" 279, vintage modern antique, designed by Guido Rosati and produced by Fontana Arte in 1972 composed of a large cylinder in transparent and partly fro...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBlown Glass
- Luigi Caccia Dominioni Italian "Porcino Terra" Floor Lamp for, Azucena, 1960sBy Azucena, Luigi Caccia DominioniLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITItalian midcentury modern design floor lamp adjustable in height model “LTE13 Porcino Terra” designed by Luigi Caccia Dominioni and produced by Azucena Milano from 1968. Chromed stee...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Fontana Arte Italian Mid-Century Modern Crystal Ashtray or Centrepiece, 1950sBy Fontana ArteLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITItalian midcentury tray of coins, ashtray or centrepiece in cut crystal produced by Fontana Arte, 1950s. Please note that the item is original of the period and this shows normal si...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Ashtrays
MaterialsCrystal
- Stilnovo Midcentury Italian Brass Glass Table Lamp, Floor Lamp 1950sBy StilnovoLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITLarge Italian Stilnovo midcentury modern design desk lamp, table lamp or floor lamp too with opaline white glass, brass base and sctructure, adesive lable Stilnovo, 1950s Amazing pa...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Stilnovo Italian Midcentury Modern Design White Floor lamp, 1960sBy StilnovoLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITItalian Mid-Century Modern design Stilnovo floor lamp with white lacquered adjustable spot, circular metal base and chromed metal structure, engraved Stilnovo Made in Italy brand, ci...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Stilnovo Midcentury Italian Floor Lamp with Brass Base, 1950sBy StilnovoLocated in Reggio Emilia, ITItalian Stilnovo Mid-Century Modern floor lamp with brass base with silk lampshade redone with antique Japanese Kimono and manufacturing la...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsBrass, Metal
- Parola sconce by Gae Aulenti & Piero Castiglioni for Fontana Arte, Italy, 1980sBy Fontana Arte, Gae AulentiLocated in Milano, ITCrafted by the collaborative efforts of Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni, the Parola lamp showcases a harmonious fusion of three distinct glassworking techniques. The adjustable sha...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
- Fontana Art Parola Table Lamp Designed by Gae Aulenti and Piero CastiglioniBy Fontana Arte, Gae AulentiLocated in Brooklyn, NYDesigned by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni, the Parola lamp features three different kinds of glass working processes: opaline blown glass for the adjus...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBlown Glass
- Gae Aulenti & P. Castiglioni for Fontana Arte "Parolona" Floor Lamp, Italy 1980sBy Gae Aulenti, Fontana ArteLocated in Naples, ITDesigned in 1980 by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for Fontana Arte. Three different types and processes of glass coexist in the Parolona floor lamp: blown opaline in the adjustab...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsGlass
- Lampada da terra Chiara, italiana moderna, di Cini Boeri per Fontana Arte, 1980sBy Cini Boeri, Fontana ArteLocated in MIlano, ITLampada da terra Chiara, italiana moderna, di Cini Boeri per Fontana Arte, 1980s. Lampada da terra modello Chiara con base tonda in metallo, stelo in vetro di Murano blu scanalato e ...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal
- Pair of 'Parola' Sconces by Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti for Fontana ArteBy Fontana ArteLocated in Los Angeles, CAPair of 'Parola' Sconces by Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte. Designed in 1980, this sconce features a dark nickel-plated brass frame and a lilac-colored opaline bl...Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsBrass
- Set of 3 Appliques Parola by Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti for Fontana ArteBy Fontana Arte, Gae AulentiLocated in Milano, LombardiaThe Set of 3 Appliques Parola, a collaborative masterpiece by Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti for Fontana Arte, epitomizes the pinnacle of mid-century Italian lighting design. Craf...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMetal
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
We Dare You Not to Smile at These Whimsical Italian Designs
Make anyplace your happy place with Italian furniture at its subversive best.
We Took Over a Historic Milan Palazzo and Filled It with Edgy Design
With "A New Breed," we showcased exceptional pieces by rising talents, a rapidly growing area of strength among 1stdibs' many offerings.