Piero Fornasetti

Although he began as a painter, and excelled in graphics and lithography, it was his ability as a craftsman in glassmaking, ceramics and textile design that made him unique. A chance meeting with Italian designer and architect Gio Ponti was a pivotal moment in his career. Gio Ponti was impressed with Fornasetti’s artisanal approach to illustration and his inventive method of printing on silk scarves that resulted in a close and very productive collaboration that last many years. Fornasetti went on to produce objects for everyday use from trays, tableware, furniture, glasses, paper weights, lighting, umbrellas and even theatrical sets. Fornasetti was influenced by classical architecture, renaissance artists, Pablo Picasso, and Op Art.

“The artist must put order in things to create another world, a second nature.”

Most famous and recognizable are his images of Opera singer, Lina Cavalieri, known as the “most beautiful woman in the world”. She spent her life working as a singer in music halls around Europe and later performing at some of the leading Opera houses in the world, becoming one of the most photographed stars of her time. In her sixties, Cavalieri returned to live in Florence, Italy with her fourth husband, Paolo d’Arvanni. They were both killed on February 7th, 1944, during an American bomb raid. Sirens rang out for the household to make their way to the air-raid shelter. Instead, Cavalieri and her husband stayed back to collect valuable jewellery. It was too late - they were both killed running towards the shelter that had saved the lives of all their servants.

Fornasetti was obsessed with Cavalieri and had an idea to immortalize her beauty. In 1952 she became his muse in the series known as Themes and Variations. Today there are over 350 versions of Lina Cavalieri most notably on plates, as well as furniture, lamps, umbrella stands and trays.