Fontana Arte Table Lamps
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.
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1950s Italian Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Opaline Glass
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
20th Century Italian Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome
20th Century Italian Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
1980s Italian Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Rubber
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass, Opaline Glass
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Steel
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Opaline Glass
1980s Italian Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal, Brass
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal, Brass
1960s Italian Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal, Aluminum
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass, Art Glass, Blown Glass
Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
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Glass
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal, Chrome
2010s Italian Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
1970s Italian Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal, Chrome
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
1980s Italian Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Crystal
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1950s Other Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Crystal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Metal
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome
1970s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Blown Glass
Early 2000s Italian Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Blown Glass, Milk Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass, Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Crystal
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Chrome, Gold, Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Aluminum
1950s Italian Other Vintage Fontana Arte Table Lamps
Brass
Fontana Arte table lamps for sale on 1stDibs.
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