From the Sforzas to design

A visit to the furniture collection of the Castello Sforzesco Museum of Decorative Arts begins with the Torchiara Tribune: a symbolic item that, in addition to being representative from a historical and artistic standpoint, also encapsulates the collection as a whole. The Torchiara Tribune is a decorative/architectural element taken from the chapel of a castle in the Parma region and built just over midway through the 15th century.

The decoration, with its alternating geometric motifs in skilfully combined bright colours using different techniques, is a perfect example of the tastes of the time period that remains eternally contemporary.

The opulence and richness of the Sforzas' collection at the close of the 15th century can be gleaned from the incredulous accounts of their contemporaries. Although inventories and descriptions do exist, identifying the works remains difficult. Among those which ended up in the Castello Sforzesco collection, several works of exceptional value can be attributed to the Sforzas, including the Murano glass goblet and the knives with niello decoration.

As attested to by period paintings and the surviving pieces, Late Medieval and Renaissance houses were furnished very simply. The most typical item of furniture from the period is the chest: this low, long and narrow box was used to store clothes or crockery, but it also acted as a seat and as a supportive surface.

The front of 15th-century chests was often decorated with painted scenes. These were usually marriage scenes or depictions of knightly deeds, although religious figures were also fairly common. Later chests were decorated with ornamental motifs worked in plaster and drawn mostly from the world of architecture.

While the most famous "Wunderkammer" were found in Germany, the canon Manfredo Settala built up a notable collection in Milan, filling his museum with all sorts of objects, with a particular penchant for themes related to nature. One of his most famous pieces, the "automa diabolico", or devilish automaton, remains in the Castello Sforzesco collection.

In 1613, Quintilio Lucini Passalacqua, a devout and religious intellectual, decided to have a desk built, basing it on a detailed iconographic plan that he had developed himself. He selected the artists and personally monitored their work.

For Passalacqua, the cabinet had to be both a distillation of the arts and a compendium of morality.

16th-century furniture was enriched with decorative elements based on plants, animals and monsters, mascarons and fantastic figures.

The Civic Museums of the Castello Sforzesco are home to some of the most significant collections once belonging to families who enriched the history of Milanese art.

The Durini collection is a valuable set collected by a wealthy family of merchants from Moltrasio, who became part of the nobility in 1648 when they purchased the county of Monza.

From the 17th century to the mid-18th century, the demand for furniture among aristocratic families centred on pieces intended for state rooms: a transition from cabinets and chests to seats, armchairs, dressing tables and consoles therefore followed.

The sober and austere furniture of the past was thus replaced by Baroque-inspired pieces with richer decoration.

Gilding was frequently used, mainly with the gold leaf technique.

The cabinet maker Giuseppe Maggiolini (1738-1814) founded a thriving workshop where pieces of exceptional build quality were produced. Drawing on the French model and certain Oriental examples, he developed a highly personal style that revolved around the art of inlaying and the use of an extraordinary variety of both local and exotic woods.

From a stylistic point of view, he made the significant transition from rococo-style furniture, which was affected and ornate, to a structure with sharper and simpler forms.

The Renaissance fashion for furniture with pietra dura inlay work came back around in Italy in the mid-19th century, expressed through original experimental pieces that attempted to reclaim the past.

In this sense, the work of the company Salviati & Co. was priceless. The firm, established in Murano in 1859 and in Venice in 1866, specialised in mosaics. They created a type of well-crafted product known as the "mosaico a uso toscano" ("mosaic for Tuscan use"). The fusion of different kinds of glass was intended to imitate the visual effect of semi-precious stone mosaics, originally created by combining different types of marble. Initially, the "mosaic for Tuscan use" was not a big hit with the Italian public, although it was very successful in English-speaking countries.

As the idea of a universally accepted concept of "beauty" began to wane in the first half of the 19th century, a fashion for reclaiming the styles of past eras emerged.

The revival of medieval forms represented a recourse to the historical values ​​of the homeland and freedom, which still had relevance when viewed in opposition to the repressive foreign rule of the 19th century.

Each style from a past era therefore had dignity thanks to its "historical" value.

Art exhibitions at the turn of the 20th century offered visibility and theoretical support to research carried out by brilliant artists and craftsmen in their workshops. These were real hotbeds of innovation where different techniques with complementary functions were trialled alongside the main work of furniture making, while design took on the task of transmitting and transferring inventions easily from one art to another.

Bugatti expressed his creativity through the use of parchment, copper applications, inlays in ebony, metal and ivory, and leather and silk inserts, achieving a harmonious fusion and meticulous balance between them.

The Richard Ginori Ceramics Company, which began operating at the end of the 19th century, was created by a merger between the factories owned by the Tuscan Marquess Carlo Ginori and those belonging to the Milanese industrialist Giulio Richard. Between 1923 and 1938, Gio Ponti (1897-1979) took over as art director, and it was his leadership that helped clearly define the relationship between art and industry that has now characterised the world of manufacturing for some time.

The Domus Nova room is a section of a larger project divided into four spaces consisting of a family room, a dining room, a double bedroom and a single bedroom. The collaboration between Gio Ponti and architect Emilio Lancia aimed to modernise the concept of middle-class housing, offering furnishing accessories that combined good build quality with affordable prices.

Towards the end of the 1920s, with this aim in mind, a new type of retail emerged that was available to large swathes of the public. It was entrusted to the Domus Nova production brand, created by Ponti himself, and to the La Rinascente department store in Milan.

Carlo Mollino was one of the most active architects of the interwar period. He dabbled in photography, set design, essay writing and modern industrial experimentation.

For example, he took the technique for the cold-bending of wood from the world of aeronautics and used it to create furniture with darting lines, deemed worthy of the term "baroque" by the American magazine, "Interiors".

Mollino's research remains so experimental and modern that several companies have undertaken to bring his historic pieces back into production.

Gio Ponti (1897-1979) should be considered revolutionary with respect to the usual concept that shapes our traditional understanding of architects; for the first time, he was able to handle design aspects and relationships with manufacturers. His versatility led him to design buildings, interiors, furnishings, design objects and ceramics.

Not only did he conceive the idea for an object, he also monitored all the subsequent design phases. In his case, the distinction between the artist-craftsman and the designer fades to almost nothing.

The architect Ettore Sottsass (1917) founded the company Memphis with Barbara Radice and Michele De Lucchi in 1981. It aimed to go beyond experimental prototypes, putting them into production and creating unique and exclusive pieces. An international group of designers contributed to this experience. The style that emerged was ironically renamed "The New International Style".

Memphis was very favourably received by the public, so much so that many objects designed there are now featured in the permanent collections of museums around the world.

The first version of the "Proust Armchair" was built in 1978 and used as a piece of furniture in the Sala del Secolo at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. The room was then exhibited at the Venice Biennale, and other versions of the armchair followed.

Alessandro Mendini initially wanted to recreate the armchair on which Proust once sat, but having found no parts, he created a neo-Baroque armchair instead.

He then concentrated on the fabric, choosing to enlarge a detail taken from a painting by the pointillist, Paul Signac.

The "Proust Armchair" is one of Italian design's most ironic and provocative pieces, with a playful side that aims to bring back "sensory pleasantness", even to everyday objects, free from any industrial limitations.