Barnaba Fornasetti Calendar Plate for 2013 With Piero Fornasetti Self Portrait, #518 of 700

Description

Barnaba Fornasetti Calandar Plate for 2013,
with Piero Fornasetti Self Portrait,
#518 of 700

The plate depicts an image of … more Barnaba Fornasetti Calandar Plate for 2013,
with Piero Fornasetti Self Portrait,
#518 of 700

The plate depicts an image of Piero Fornasetti bases upon a self-portrait with monthly calanders coming out of the top of his open head withhim holding a ruler with the year 2013 on it. The 2013 edition stands as a celebration of the birth of the Italian atelier's founder Piero Fornasetti, depicting a portrait of the artist himself.

Diameter: 9 1/4 inches

According to the Fornasetti website, "The calendar plate is a distinctive Fornasetti trademark. It was born in 1968 from the "annuari", limited edition hand-printed booklets designed by Piero Fornasetti at the request of Gio Ponti in the 1940s. Each year is described by an original design and a typical Fornasetti motif: suns, moons, playing cards, owls, cats, zodiac signs etc."

From 1968 to 1988, Piero Fornasetti then created and produced the calendar plate as an annual tradition to bring in the New Year which was not sold but given as a gift from Fornasetti to friends and clients.

In 1989, his son Barnaba Fornasetti continued in his father's footsteps establishing a limited edition of 700 or 750 plates. The 2013 edition stands as a celebration of the birth of the Italian atelier's founder Piero Fornasetti, depicting a portrait of the artist himself.

Mark: A large gilt lobster with 2013 in white on its back and 46 Piatto Calendaro/ Edizione speciale in occasione del Centenario della nascita and the traditional hand and brush. FORNASETTI/made in Italy and numbered no. 518/700.

Reference: Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams, Patrick Mauriès, page 76-77 where this image from a self-portrait by Piero Fornasetti. The author writes that "Fornasetti's self-portraits are ofter strangely cool, even cruel and satirical. His head becomes just another object with which to play fantastic games. Perhaps the idea of of variations on a theme, which occupies so important a part of his oeuvre, began with these visions of his own head as a diagram.... ." less