Atelier Fornasetti porcelain plate number 122, Italy circa 1990
View Similar Items
Atelier Fornasetti porcelain plate number 122, Italy circa 1990
About the Item
- Creator:Fornasetti (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 0.79 in (2 cm)Diameter: 10.24 in (26 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1990-1999
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1990
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Macclesfield, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: f89141607065058023fs
Fornasetti
The Italian artist, illustrator and furniture maker Piero Fornasetti was one of the wittiest and most imaginative design talents of the 20th century. He crafted an inimitable decorative style from a personal vocabulary of images that included birds, butterflies, hot-air balloons, architecture and — most frequently, and in some 500 variations — an enigmatic woman’s face based on that of the 19th-century opera singer Lina Cavalieri. Fornasetti used transfer prints of these images, rendered in the style of engravings, to decorate an endless variety of furnishings and housewares that ranged from chairs, tables and desks to dinner plates, lamps and umbrella stands. His work is archly clever, often surreal and always fun.
Fornasetti was born in Milan, the son of an accountant, and he lived his entire life in the city. He showed artistic talent as a child and enrolled at Milan’s Brera Academy of Fine Art in 1930, but was expelled after two years for consistently failing to follow his professors’ orders. A group of his hand-painted silk scarves, displayed in the 1933 Triennale di Milano, caught the eye of the architect and designer Gio Ponti, who, in the 1940s, became Fornasetti’s collaborator and patron. Beginning in the early 1950s, they created a striking a series of desks, bureaus and secretaries that pair Ponti’s signature angular forms with Fornasetti’s decorative motifs — lighthearted arrangements of flowers and birds on some pieces, austere architectural imagery on others. The two worked together on numerous commissions for interiors, though their greatest project has been lost: the first-class lounges and restaurants of the luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956.
Fornasetti furnishings occupy an unusual and compelling niche in the decorative arts: they are odd yet pack a serious punch. They act, essentially, as functional sculpture. A large Fornasetti piece such as a cabinet or a desk can change the character of an entire room; his smaller works have the aesthetic power of a vase of flowers, providing a bright and alluring decorative note. The chimerical, fish-nor-fowl nature of Fornasetti’s work may be its greatest strength. It stands on its own. Bringing the Fornasetti look into the future is Barnaba Fornasetti, who took the reins of the company after his father's death.
- Fornasetti Themes & Variation Porcelain Plate, Number 200By FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAFornasetti Themes & Variation Porcelain Plate with Original White Box, Number 200, The Statue, 1990s The Fornasetti porcelain plate is number 200 in the Themes & Variation series. ...Category
1990s Italian Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Fornasetti Themes & Variations Porcelain Plate, Number 9, Maori TatoosBy FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAFornasetti Themes & Variations porcelain plate, Pattern Number 9, Atelier Fornasetti, 1990s The Fornasetti porcelain plate in the Themes & Variation pattern depicts the face o...Category
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Dinner Plates
MaterialsPorcelain
- Piero Fornasetti Porcelain Astrolabe Plate, Number Twelve in Astrolabio SeriesBy FornasettiLocated in Downingtown, PAThe Piero Fornasetti porcelain plate depicts an astrolabe, it is number twelve of twelve in series. A ribbon above reads "Ad Habendum Horam Ineqvalem Et Qvatvor Angvlos Celi In Die"....Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Fornasetti “Plate Calendar n 20” Porcelain, 1987, ItalyBy FornasettiLocated in Milano, ITFornasetti “Plate Calendar n 20” porcelain, 1987, Italy.Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Other Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Fornasetti “Plate n.16 Calendario “ Porcelain 1983 ItalyBy FornasettiLocated in Milano, ITFornasetti “Plate n.16 Calendario “ porcelain 1983 Italy.Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Other Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain
- Fornasetti Calender Plate 2009 Porcelain n. 42 ItalyBy FornasettiLocated in Long Island, NYFornasetti Calender Plate 2009 . Porcelain n.42 ,Made in Italy .Category
Early 2000s Italian Modern Porcelain
MaterialsPorcelain