╳ Piero Fornasetti

╳ To visit the Fornasetti website is to experience pure delight. Celebrated as being among the most original creative talents of the twentieth century Piero Fornasetti was an Italian painter, sculptor, interior decorator and engraver, who lived for most of his in Milan. He created more than 11,000 items, many featuring the face of opera soprano Lina Cavalieri, as a motif.  (Fornasetti found her face in a 19th century magazine.)

╳ “What inspired me to create more than 500 variations on the face of a woman?” the Italian designer, is quoted asking himself. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “I began to make them and I never stopped.” Amazingly, the ‘Tema e Variazioni’ (theme and variation) plate series based on Cavalieri's face numbers more than 350.

╳ Other common features in his work include the heavy use of black and white, the sun and time.   His style is reminiscent of Greek  and Roman architecture, from which he was heavily influenced, and today it is most common to see Fornasetti's pieces in high-fashion settings and applied to accessories such as scarves, ties, lamps, furniture, china plates and tables.

╳ During his career Signore Fornasetti created a visual vocabulary that is instantly recognisable and unceasingly engaging.  His is a magical world, saturated in image and colour and filled with whimsy and wit, and nowadays his son, Barnaba Fornasetti, continues to design in his father's name. The Fornasetti family home is an extraordinary testament to the creativity of Piero Fornasetti.  The house can be found in the Città Studi area of Milan and was built by Piero’s parents in the 19th century.   Like a labyrinth, the house is made up of a complex and intricate network of rooms and corridors.  The family home became a canvas for Fornasetti’s fervent creativity and over the course of the many years that he lived there, became decorated with his art, in fact the house is now a living archive of his style.

╳ The Fornasetti Atelier in Milan is an outpost of careful and accomplished craft production.  Skilled craftsmen use the same rigorous handcrafted techniques that were employed on the very first Fornasetti products: colour is applied by hand and the original paper patterns are still followed.   Maintaining the quality of these methods of making is an important aspect of the Fornasetti legacy.

╳ The majority of the furniture and objects produced in the Atelier are true ‘re-editions’ of the original designs created by Piero Fornasetti. Objects referred to as ‘Re-inventions’ are designs created by Barnaba Fornasetti using the decorative elements and imagery found in the immense Fornasetti archive and are evolutions of the exclusive production of his father. The work of both Piero and Barnaba Fornasetti is truly ‘to die for.’ Like father, like son.

╳ To experience pure heaven visit the link below.
www.fornasetti.com

╳ Images (top to bottom)

╳ Lina Cavalieri Plate, ‘Tema e Variazioni’ Series  
╳ Vellum papers and colour reference drawings  
╳ Silkscreens
╳ Trumeau-Bar ‘Black and White’ open and closed
╳ Trumeau-Bar 'Limomatric' open and closed
╳ Chest of drawers, gold and silver 'Soli elune' on blue