Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) was a painter, interior decorator, sculptor, and engraver from Italy. Out of the 11,000 items he created, over 500 of them consist of the face of one single woman; drawn up from a wood carving of the very famous Italian operatic soprano Lina Cavalieri.
The Italian beauty’s face spans over plates, paintings, and clocks, and other various objects of design. So, why create so many things related to one woman? The simple explanation Fornasetti offers is this: “I began to make them and I never stopped.”
Artist, decorator, printmaker: categorize Fornasetti how you will — but the man didn’t create a single ceramic until the age of 33. A set of plates was made by him for the 1947 Milan exhibition organized by designer Gio Ponti.
Who would have thought he’d develop such a strong connection to the world of ceramics? After his first foray into this medium, he searched for a manufacturer to produce them, to be sold. He was unlucky and couldn’t find anyone, every single manufacturer he approached rejected him.
So, he decided to produce them himself. He created a ceramics studio inside his normal art studio, hiring specialists to help with everything from decorations to prints. He continued to design them until his death in 1988. It’s kind of amazing how today, Fornasetti’s pieces have become indelibly recognizable not only in design circles, but around the world with people who can easily distinguish the famous and mysterious face of Lina Cavalieri.
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