Best known for its elegant and innovative vintage lighting fixtures, the Milan-based firm Fontana Arte pioneered one of the key features of 20th-century and contemporary Italian design: the union of artistry and industry wrought by partnerships between creative talents — chiefly architects — and entrepreneurial businesses. Fontana Arte is further distinguished by having had as artistic director, in succession, four of Italy’s most inventive modernist designers: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, French transplant Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti.
The bread and butter of the glassmaking company that Luigi Fontana founded in 1881 was plate-glass panels for the construction industry. In 1930, Fontana met Ponti — then the artistic director of the Richard Ginori ceramics workshop and the editor of the influential magazine Domus — at a biannual design exhibition that became the precursor to today’s Milan Design Triennale, and the two hatched an idea for a furniture and housewares firm. Fontana Arte was incorporated in 1932 with Ponti as its chief of design. He contributed several lamps that remain among the company’s signature works, including the orb-atop-cone Bilia table lamp and the 0024 pendant — a stratified hanging sphere.
The following year, Fontana Arte partnered with the influential Milan studio glassmaker and retailer Pietro Chiesa, who took over as artistic director. Chiesa’s designs for lighting — as well as for tables and items including vases and ashtrays — express an appreciation for fluidity and simplicity of line, as seen in works such as his flute-shaped Luminator floor lamp and the 1932 Fontana table — an arched sheet of glass that is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Six years after Chiesa’s 1948 death, the École des Beaux Arts–trained Max Ingrand took over as head of design at Fontana Arte. Ingrand brought a similarly expressive formal sensibility to wares such as lamps and mirrors, but he also had a masterful eye for the manipulation of glass surfaces — whether they be cut, frosted, acid-etched or sand-blasted. His classic design is the Fontana table lamp of 1954, which has a truncated cone shade and curved body, both of which are made of pure, chic white-frosted glass.
Following Ingrand, the often-audacious Italian architect Gae Aulenti served as the company’s artistic director from 1979 to 1996, and while she generally insisted that furnishings take second place aesthetically to architecture, she made an exception for Fontana Arte pieces such as the Tavolo con Ruote series of glass coffee and dining tables on wheels, bold lighting pieces such as the Parola series and the Giova, a combination flower vase and table lamp. As a key incubator of modern design under Aulenti’s tenure, Fontana Arte remained true to its long-held commitment — creating objects that have never been less than daring.
Find vintage Fontana Arte lighting fixtures such as pendants, table lamps and more on 1stDibs.
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte Rare Rectangular Brass and Glass Mirror Model 2172A
By Max Ingrand, Fontana Arte
Located in New York, NY
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte rare rectangular modernist mirror model 2172A composed of exterior brass frame and thick polished beveled colored glass interior frame. This chic model ...
Brass
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte Crystal Mirror Model 2085, 1960s
By Fontana Arte, Max Ingrand
Located in New York, NY
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte rare and exquisite shield or ovoid shaped glass mirror model 2046 consisting of a thick beveled blue green colored glass frame suspending the original mi...
Brass
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte Round Glass Wall Mirror Model 1669, Italy, 1965
By Max Ingrand
Located in New York, NY
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte classic and elegant round wall mirror model 1669 in green-tinted or dark gray-colored, curved and beveled glass framing beveled mirrored glass encased in...
Brass
Cristal Art Rectangular Blue Glass Mirror Model 2712
By Cristal Arte
Located in New York, NY
Cristal Art rectangular mirror model 2712 with thick blue concave crystal glass frame suspending central mirrored glass by elegant brass mounts on a wooden backing. This striking and...
Cut Glass, Mirror, Wood
Midcentury Italian Modernist Grand Scale Rectangular Brass Beveled Mirror, 1950s
Located in New York, NY
Midcentury Italian modernist grand scale or floor length brass wall mirror with gently rounded corners and bevelled mirrored glass, 1950s. This rectangular mirror is versatile and ca...
Brass
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte Rare Oval Green Crystal Mirror Model 2046, 1960s
By Fontana Arte, Max Ingrand
Located in New York, NY
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte rare exquisite oval green crystal mirror model 2046 consisting of a double glass frame of lighter and darker green colored, curved and beveled glass fram...
Metal
Model 2014 mirror by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte
By Fontana Arte, Max Ingrand
Located in Tarrytown, NY
Model 2014 mirror by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte. Features a floating glass surround with nickel clip details.
Nickel
Midcentury Squared Wall Mirror by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte, Italy 1960s
By Fontana Arte, Max Ingrand
Located in Rome, IT
Midcentury amazing squared wall mirror model 2377 mirrored coloured cut glass frame black wood fitting by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte. Made in Italy 29 - January - 1965. The original stamp is still visible on the back, as shown in the picture. Reference: Quaderni Fontana Arte n°7. Max Ingrand (1908 – 1969) ; Creating forward-thinking and innovative pieces of furniture years before his time, French stained glass designer and decorator Max Ingrand created design classics such as the Fontana table lamp, a bulbous white-painted metal frame with a satin white blown glass shade and globe. The Italian contemporary...
Metal
Mid-Century Rectangular Mirror Model 2014 by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte, 1960
By Max Ingrand, Fontana Arte
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-century Rectangular mirror model 2014 by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte, 1960s Designer Biography : "Max Ingrand was born in 1908 in Bressuire, France. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Paris where he specialized in decorative art. In 1931 Ingrand established his own workshop, where he experimented transparency, and light, notably with stained glass. Mad Ingrand was educated in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where he studied interior design and specialized in decorative arts graduating in 1927. While at school, he apprenticed to renowned stained glass artist Jacques Grüber, known for his Art Nouveau stained glass windows...
Glass
Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte: 1950s Mid-Century Colored Glass Wall Mirror
By Fontana Arte, Max Ingrand
Located in Palermo, IT
A renowned piece of historic design, this is a rare rectangular wall mirror designed by the famous French designer Max Ingrand for the Italian company Fontana Arte and produced aroun...
Brass
Important Trapezoidal Form Mirror by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte
By Fontana Arte
Located in Montreal, QC
Important trapezoidal form, plate glass mirror by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte. The mirror consists of a one inch thick, concave glass backing, supporting a floating mirror plate, mounted on a cream colored, lacquered wood brace. This piece is highly indicative in its quality and design of the craftsmanship and simple elegance for which Ingrand was famous. Bearing original maker’s sticker, which reads: “Fontanit Luigi Fontana Italy Milano.” Fig. 432 of Franco Deboni’s reference book Fontana...
Glass
Mirror Model "2273" by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte, Italy, 1960s
By Max Ingrand
Located in Brussels, BE
Mirror Model "2273" by Max Ingrand for Fontana Arte, Italy, 1960s
Crystal
