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Architettura, A Lithographically and Transfer-Printed Wood and Metal Trumeau

Designed by Piero Fornasetti and Gio Ponti, 1951

Inlaid with the firm's circular hand with brush tag

86 ½ in (215 cm) high, 31 ½ in (78.7 cm) wide, 15 ¾ in (39.4 cm) deep

Provenance
The collection of Henry Bernard

cf. Mariuccia Casadio, Fornasetti: l'artista alchimista e la bottega fantastica, 2009
Patrick Mauries, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, (exh. cat., London), 1991, pp.100-1
Martin Eidelberg, Designed for Delight: Alternative Aspects of Twentieth-Century Decorative Arts, exh. cat., Montreal, 1997, p.243
Barnaba Fornasetti, ed., Fornasetti: The Complete Universe, 2010, p.344, fig.1, p.349, fig.37, p.356
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The stunning Architettura trumeau prototype was designed in 1951 by Piero Fornasetti and Gio Ponti. The original prototype is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and another similar in a private collection in Milan. The prototype exhibited at the Ninth Triennale in Milan in 1951 is distinguished by its concave top and tapering legs. It was then modified by Fornasetti to have a flat top and tapering brass legs, a type only produced later in the 1950s, with subsequent models supported on ebonised square sectioned legs. An edition of approximately 40 was produced in the 1950s and 1960s, and reintroduced in an edition of ten in the 1980s. The present model was owned by Piero Fornasetti's friend, Henry Bernard, an architect who played a significant role throughout the artistic world at the time and was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Fornasetti drew his inspiration from architectural prints of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Alessi's Palace at Genoa, now the Municipality. His designs, often referred to as 'functional Surrealism', are likewise indebted to 16th-century trompe l'oeil and 20th-century Surrealism. Architettura follows a rich tradition of superior Italian architecture and trompe l'oeil, from the Renaissance study of Frederico da Montefeltro at Urbino, to Palladio, to the prints of Piranesi.

The most emblematic furniture design of Fornasetti's entire oeuvre, examples of Architettura are held in the Fornasetti Archive in Milan, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.