Venini "Commedia Dell' Arte" Figurine by Fulvio Bianconi
View Similar Items
Venini "Commedia Dell' Arte" Figurine by Fulvio Bianconi
About the Item
- Creator:Venini (Manufacturer),Fulvio Bianconi (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 14.5 in (36.83 cm)Width: 4 in (10.16 cm)Depth: 3.25 in (8.26 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Good vintage condition, minor wear consistent with age and use. Has been repaired in two spots.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU813814087401
Fulvio Bianconi
For a range of work that includes everything from illustrating thousands of books and other publications to his role as a visionary glassmaker, Fulvio Bianconi is remembered as one of the most innovative cross-disciplinarian artists of the postwar era.
Born in Ponte di Brenta in 1915, Bianconi showed a prodigious talent for drawing at an early age and, as a teenager, earned money as a portraitist. He also worked as an apprentice decorator in his youth at the Murano glass furnaces, where he first discovered the art of glassmaking.
In 1933, he moved to Milan to pursue a career as a graphic artist, and it was there he met Dino Villani, a painter who had ties to some of Milan’s most prestigious publishing houses and advertising firms. However, at the onset of World War II, Bianconi paused his graphic design ambitions and joined the army. In 1944, he narrowly escaped the infamous Via Rasella Nazi raids in German-occupied Rome.
Following the war, Bianconi went to work designing perfume bottles for the Milan perfume house Giviemme at Venini glassworks, where he worked with glass masters Ermete and Arturo Biassuto. Bianconi became one of Venini’s most influential glass designers — and was appointed artistic director following Carlo Scarpa — known for his bold use of color, modern style and unique, playful designs.
Among Bianconi's most iconic works in glass are the series of glass figures from the Commedia dell’Arte, his remarkably fluid bowls, and the patchwork “Pezzato” technique — his colorful vases created with this technique feature patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt. Works made in this fashion caused a sensation at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950.
Venini co-founder Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949.
Bianconi worked with several other glass studios, including Cenedese in 1954 and Vistosi in 1963, creating decorative vessels, bowls, hourglasses and sculptures. He was also a graphic designer with the Italian publishing house Garzanti for nearly 30 years. Bianconi’s portfolio of graphic design included work for FIAT, Pathé and Pirelli, among others.
Bianconi’s glassworks are held in museum collections worldwide, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. The artist died in 1996.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Fulvio Bianconi decorative objects, glassware and lighting.
Venini
Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans who created extraordinary chandeliers, sconces and other lighting in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano.
While the company’s co-founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Gio Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearns of the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.
Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm — he and antiques dealer Giacomo Cappellin established Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. in 1921 — Venini took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction, it produced mainly classical Baroque designs.
In 1932, Venini hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).
Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt.
Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.
With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st centuries — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.
Find antique and vintage Venini chandeliers, serveware, table lamps, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Large Venini Wall Lights by Carlo ScarpaBy Carlo Scarpa, VeniniLocated in New York, NYLarge wall lights designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini in the 1940s. Each is composed of five hand blow Murano glasses made in the “Corteccia” technique. The color of the glass is amb...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
MaterialsMurano Glass
$4,750 Sale Price / set50% Off - Textured Square Murano Glass Flushmount by Toni Zuccheri for VeniniBy Toni Zuccheri, VeniniLocated in New York, NYTextured square Murano Glass Flushmount designed by Toni Zuccheri for Venini in the 1960s. Brass Hardware. Holds four candelabra sockets. Condition: Excellent vintage condition, min...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
MaterialsBrass
- Textured Round Murano Glass Flushmount by Toni Zuccheri for VeniniBy Toni Zuccheri, VeniniLocated in New York, NYTextured Round Murano Glass Flushmount designed by Toni Zuccheri for Venini in the 1960s. Brass Hardware. Holds four candelabra sockets. Condition: Excellent vintage condition, mino...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
MaterialsBrass
- Large Venini Poliedri Chandelier, Italy, 1960sBy VeniniLocated in New York, NYLarge Italian Mid-Century chandelier by Venini with dozens of handblown Polyhedral Murano glasses. The glasses are a mix of amber, rose and blue hanging from a satin nickel frame. C...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMurano Glass
- Pair of Venini Poliedri Chandeliers, Italy, 1960sBy VeniniLocated in New York, NYMid-century chandeliers by Venini made with their iconic poliedri Murano glasses. The glasses are a mix of light rose and clear mounted on a white lacquered frame holding seven E12 c...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
$5,900 / item - Large Venini Murano Glass ChandelierBy VeniniLocated in New York, NYLarge Venini Murano Glass Chandelier $12,500.00 Large Murano glass chandelier by Venini from the 1960s. Its composed of several colorless hand blown ribbed glass sections that come t...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsGlass
- Fulvio Bianconi Glass Figurine, Venini 1950 circaBy Fulvio BianconiLocated in Milano, ITPolychrome glass figurine with sleeve. Made to a design by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini. Acid signature on the base “Venini Murano Italia”. The figurine...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsGlass
- Venini Murano Fulvio Bianconi Tiepolo Head FigurineBy Fulvio BianconiLocated in Brussels, BEThe Commedia dell’arte figurines are one of Fulvio Bianconi's most characteristic productions for Venini. Their creation can be dated around 1947-1948. The series, which originally consisted of twelve models, was exhibited at the 24th Venice Biennale in 1948. It is important to see this series of figurines as a cartoonish reinterpretation of the figurines that were very popular on the island of Murano in the 1930s. We recognize here the ironic touch of the work of Fulvio Bianconi who an illustrator was. Fulvio Bianconi uses here for each figurine a different costume and mask, the base is always made of lattimo glass decorated for polychrome glass costumes. Attitudes are also different for each character. We rarely find the heads of these figurines which were rare productions and out of catalog. Charming objects blown by masters outside the “regular” production. We present here the head of Giangurgolo, a figurine which bore the reference 2900 in the Venini catalog. The basic material of the lattimo glass head, the pink eyes...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Busts
MaterialsArt Glass, Murano Glass
- Fulvio Bianconi for Venini Murano Pair of Figurines Arlecchino and ArlecchinaBy Fulvio Bianconi, VeniniLocated in Brussels, BEA rare pair of figurines designed by Fulvio Bianconi, manufactured by Venini Murano in Italy, circa 1955. In lattimo glass with polychrome decoratio...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsArt Glass
- Glass Sculpture by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini, Italy, 1960sBy Venini, Fulvio BianconiLocated in Milan, ITGlass sculpture by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini. Colored glass block used as sample to compose screens, large windows or as single sculptures...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Sculptures
MaterialsGlass
- Venini Clessidre Glass Hourglass in Pink and Gray by Fulvio BianconiBy Venini, Fulvio BianconiLocated in Brooklyn, NYClessidre Hourglass, designed by Paolo Venini and Fulvio Bianconi, was originally designed in 1957. Available in different colors, the grey / mint green version is a limited edition ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Mobiles and Kinetic Sculptures
MaterialsGlass
- Handshake, a Post-War Lattimo Art Glass Sculpture by Fulvio Bianconi for VeniniBy Venini, Fulvio BianconiLocated in Philadelphia, PAAn exceptionally rare figurine by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini & Co. Referred to as 'Handshake', the model consists of a gloved hand with a scalloped cuff shaking hands with a naked...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsMurano Glass