Fornasetti Porcelain Surreal Gold Themes & Variation Plate, Pattern # 39

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Fornasetti Porcelain Plate, Tema e Variazioni, Pattern No. 39
Atelier Fornasetti, Milan Porcelain with gold accents

Diameter: 10¼ in. x … Read more Fornasetti Porcelain Plate, Tema e Variazioni, Pattern No. 39
Atelier Fornasetti, Milan Porcelain with gold accents

Diameter: 10¼ in. x 1¼ in.

This surrealist porcelain plate belongs to Piero Fornasetti’s celebrated Tema e Variazioni series, a decades-long meditation on the face of Lina Cavalieri, the 19th-century operatic soprano whose image Fornasetti discovered in a French illustrated magazine. Pattern No. 39 reimagines Cavalieri’s visage with gilded embellishments, transforming her into a dreamlike icon—part muse, part mystery.

Fornasetti created over 500 variations on Cavalieri’s face, each a poetic riff on femininity, symbolism, and surrealist whimsy. As he once remarked, “I began to make them and I never stopped.” This plate exemplifies his belief that a single motif could yield infinite interpretations—moon, mask, mosaic, clock, or eye—each one a portal into the artist’s imagination.

Referencing themes such as the sun, harlequins, and playing cards, Fornasetti’s work resists categorization, blending classical elegance with modern eccentricity. As Patrick Mauries notes in Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, “A single product never exhausted the possibilities of an idea.” This plate stands as both object and idea—an enduring variation on a timeless theme.

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