Gio Ponti "Pair of Benches" Produced by Quarti, Italy, 1930s, Walnut, Brass

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Gio Ponti "Pair of Benches" Produced by Quarti, Italy, 1930s, Walnut, Brass

About the Item

Gio Ponti Benches (A pair from Villa Vittoria, Florence) 1930 Pair of Walnut and brass wall benches originally produced for Palazzo Contini Bonacossi, Firenze Height: 18.6” (47.2 cm) - Width: 88.8“ (225.5 cm) - Depth: 24.2” (61.4 cm) Produced by Quarti, two of only four examples ever made * Price (ex VAT) In 1927, Gio Ponti and Tommaso Buzzi were commissioned to decorate Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi’s home in Florence, Quadreria Moderna, Villa Vittoria. Ponti drew inspiration from the Count’s extraordinary collection of classical and modern art, which included masterpieces by Morandi, Carra, Campigli, Goya, the Sironis and De Chiroco, to create modern forms with large personality. Background: The origins of the Contini-Bonacossi family’s art collection began with the encounter of Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, later receiving the title of Count, and Erminia Vittoria Galli Feroldi. Already a collector and dealer of stamps, Alessandro, when he married Vittoria in 1888, soon turned his focus towards Old Masters. Together, Alessandro and Vittoria travelled to America, where they cultivated important relationships with art collectors and museums, in order to further expand and enrich their collection, all of which was beautifully chronicled in Vittoria’s diaries ‘Diari Americani’. Although from humble origins, through her natural intuition Vittoria developed an incredibly sophisticated eye for identifying exceptional works of art. She soon became an irreplaceable advisor, not only to her husband Alessandro, but also to art critics such as Bernard Berenson and Roberto Longhi. Returning to Italy, they settled in Florence, where they acquired a nineteenth-century villa built by Marquess Massimiliano Strozzi, which Alessandro then renamed Villa Vittoria in honour of his beloved wife. With the priority of accommodating their magnificent art collection, the villa underwent extensive refurbishment under the supervision of Gio Ponti, Tomaso Buzzi and Giulio Rosso. The display and placement of the artworks was inspired by the principles of Wilhelm von Bode, the first curator of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, known today as the Bode Museum. Completed in 1931, the house was frequented by art critics, museum directors, painters, writers, and aristocracy. The ground floor retained its original nineteenth-century Neo-Renaissance style, housing their antiques and Old Masters collection, which included works by Giovanni Bellini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Paolo Uccello, Tintoretto, El Greco, Diego Velazquez, and many others. A token of her devotion, Vittoria kept a notebook with the names and dates of each of the artists in their collection, donating five liras of silver to the church to hold a mass in honor of their anniversaries. The modern art collection, which was Vittoria’s foremost passion, was located on the first floor in the Quadreria moderna (modern picture gallery), and displayed works amongst others by Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Marino Marini, and Carlo Carrà. For the space, which occupied a long hallway, Ponti designed several pieces, comprising six stools, four benches and two tables, adopting a neoclassical style inspired by ancient Rome. Each work was executed by master cabinetmaker Angelo Quarti using walnut, leather, brass and marble. Of the four benches produced, only these two remain as a pair, whilst the other two are known to be in separate private collections. The brass table legs feature a sculptural quality illustrating Ponti’s desire to create an environment honoring the exceptional quality of the surrounding art collection. Of Ponti’s works from this period, this commission stands out for its exceptional level of execution. In 1943, when Florence was freed by their American allies, General Mark W. Clark and the high command were stationed at the Villa Vittoria. Recalling his stay, General Clark stated: 'It was worth fighting the war to live in this house, to get to know you, for everything ...’ Today Villa Vittoria is Florence’s Congress Palace. As outlined in Contini Bonacossi’s will, the collection was donated to the Italian state in 1969, however, the heirs of the family contested it and in the end the larger part of the collection was sold and split up whilst what could be recovered has ended up as part of the Uffizi Gallery collection in Florence. One of the four benches was included by the Gio Ponti Archives in the retrospective of the late designer’s work at the Musee des Arts decoratifs, Paris for their 2018 exhibition. Together with certificates of expertise from the Gio Ponti Archives. Literature: 'Alcuni mobili di Tomaso Buzzi e di Gio Ponti nella dimora dei Conti C. in Firenze', Domus, no. 71, November 1933, pp. 580-81. Irene de Guttry and Maria Paola Maino, Il mobile déco italiano, Bari, 1988, p. 215, fig. 21. Ugo La Pietra, ed., Gio Ponti: L’arte si innamora dell’industria, New York, 2009, pp. 53, figs. 115, 11921 for images and technical drawings.

Creator:
Gio Ponti (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 18.59 in (47.2 cm)Width: 88.78 in (225.5 cm)Depth: 24.18 in (61.4 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 2
Style:
Neoclassical (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Walnut,Brushed,Polished
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1930
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU5241218941612

Shop All Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti

An architect, furniture and industrial designer and editor, Gio Ponti was arguably the most influential figure in 20th-century Italian modernism.

Ponti (1891–1979) designed thousands of furnishings and products — from cabinets, lamps 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.

His 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 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.

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