Fornasetti Gold Tema E Variazioni Wall Plate No. 39, Lina Cavalieri as the Moon

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Description

Fornasetti Gold Tema e Variazioni Wall Plate No. 39, Lina Cavalieri as the Moon
Atelier Fornasetti, Milan, after 1988

A … Read more Fornasetti Gold Tema e Variazioni Wall Plate No. 39, Lina Cavalieri as the Moon
Atelier Fornasetti, Milan, after 1988

A crescent moon with a face: this Fornasetti wall plate is gilded edge to edge, and a great gold disc slides across it to leave just a sliver of white porcelain at the right. Inside that sliver is the face that launched a whole design language, the opera singer Lina Cavalieri, printed in Piero Fornasetti’s crisp black-and-white halftone with her curls at the top, one serene eye at the center and her lips at the point below. It is variation No. 39 in his Tema e Variazioni series, and one of the most graphic of them all.

The gold ground is what makes the piece. It catches the light and shifts from warm honey to bright mirror as you move, so the plate reads as a small piece of wall sculpture rather than a picture. Hang it alone above a bedside table or bar cart, pair it with a sun-face plate for a sun-and-moon duo in a hallway, or make it the anchor of a gallery wall of Fornasetti faces in a powder room, dressing room or study. It is equally at home in a glossy black-lacquer scheme, a warm neutral room with brass accents, or a maximalist mix of pattern where its gold and graphic black hold their own. Two holes in the footrim mean it is ready to hang.

Dimensions
Diameter: 10¼ inches (26.0 cm)
Height: 1¼ inches (3.2 cm)

Marks
Printed black backstamp to the reverse: a square halftone eye device above TEMA E VARIAZIONI, the numeral 39, and the Fornasetti hand-and-brush device above FORNASETTI · MILANO / MADE IN ITALY. Two pierced holes in the footrim for hanging.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good condition. No repairs, restoration or damage.

Historical Context
Piero Fornasetti (1913–1988) found a portrait of the Belle Époque soprano Lina Cavalieri (1874–1944) in a nineteenth-century magazine and began drawing variations on her face in 1952. He never met her and never stopped: the series reached 299 variations by 1966 and around 400 today, continued since his death by the Milan atelier under his son Barnaba. The gold-ground wall plates are the atelier’s most decorative editions of the theme. See less