Private collection, Milan Acquired from the above by the present owner
Literature
Franco Deboni, Fontana Arte: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Max Ingrand, Turin, 2012, fig. 67 for a similar example table lamp
Catalogue Essay
In 1933 Gio Ponti succeeded in his attempt to convince Pietro Chiesa to join him as Creative Director of Fontana Arte. By the time of Chiesa's death in 1948, Fontana Arte had become a worldwide benchmark for Italian design and Chiesa’s creations were counted among the ‘classics’ in the history of design. According to Ponti, Pietro Chiesa’s complex personality played an essential role in the success of Fontana Arte. His curious and avid temperament inclined towards the eccentric and rare was an endless source of inspiration for innovative creations; on the other hand, Chiesa’s perfectionism and high quality standards impelled the ‘Italian quality’ trademark internationally, equalising it to the one of countries with a stronger design tradition, such as France and Germany.
As a former master glass maker, Chiesa was a prolific lamp designer. From the timeless elegance of the essential forms he elaborated romantic constructions and even mechanistic fantasies. He produced some of the most iconic lamp designs of Fontana Arte, such as the globe-lamp designed for the Cosulich Shipping Company of Trieste, to which the present ceiling light is closely related.
