Novecento a tavola

Novecento a tavola

Images reproduced with the authorization of: Wolfsoniana - Regional Foundation for Culture and Entertainment, Genoa,

TWENTIETH CENTURY AT TABLE From 14 July 2010, in the temporary exhibition hall of the Wolfsoniana in Genoa Nervi, the exhibition Novecento a tavola can be visited, inaugurated by Angelo Berlangieri, Councillor for Tourism, Culture and Entertainment of the Liguria Region, and Gabriella Airaldi, President of the Regional Foundation for Culture and Entertainment. Conceived as an extension of the permanent museum itinerary and curated by Silvia Barisione, Matteo Fochessati and Gianni Franzone, the exhibition presents three complete dining rooms which, together with that of Piero Bottoni (1937) already on display, allow visitors to retrace the evolution of styles that characterised the panorama of Italian decorative arts in the interwar period and invite reflection on the lifestyles of the era, the social significance of the family, and the influence of behaviours proposed by politics and the modern means of communication that were then asserting themselves. The first dining room by Ettore Zaccari (Cesena 1877 - Milan 1922), who ran a 'workshop' specialising in art furniture in the Lombard capital, is a typical example of his furnishings, in which stylistic characteristics typical of the déco taste can be discerned. His works, usually in dark polished wood, though marked by a revisitation of 'in style' furniture, especially Renaissance pieces, are in fact close to some of the most up-to-date contemporary international experiences—such as the production of the Frenchman Maurice Dufrène—for the dense and exuberant mark of the carved decoration, often gilded or painted. In this dining room, a precise desire for characterisation on the part of the clients is also noticeable: on the table are carved the names of the various family members, and the chair backs are personalised with monograms. In the dining room for the Anzellotti house, designed and carved in 1932 by the sculptor Umberto Bartoli (Livorno 1888 - Florence 1977), a collaborator of the Coppedè Studio since the early 1920s, formal elements of déco taste combine with stylistic motifs of a Novecento imprint. The compositional rigidity of the sporting trophies on the sideboard and the putti placed at the four corners of the table denotes a déco matrix, while the expressive harmony with the archaism and plastic simplification of the Novecento style is evident in the subjects of the carved figures, inspired by the theme of sport. The iconographic choice stems from a precise request of the clients: the image of the footballer at the centre of the sideboard in fact refers to the football career of Aldo Anzellotti, who in his youth had played for the team that gave rise to the current Fiorentina; the figure of the skier on one of the corners of the console bears witness to the passion for skiing of his wife Bianca Cresti. The theme of sport, moreover, found precise correspondences with the spirit of the regime's propaganda, which, besides having celebrated Italy's Olympic victories in 1932 in a spirit of nationalist pride, projected onto sporting discipline and physical exercise its own rhetorical aspirations for the improvement of the race, imposing the cult of daring, danger and competition as a metaphor for an imminent military commitment. Closing the section is L'Autarca, the great novelty of the exhibition, which entered the Wolfsoniana's collections thanks to the recent donation by Cesara and Dina Laura Garbarino. It is a round table, with geometric forms devoid of decoration, designed by the Genoese notary Angelo Fasce (Genoa 1878 - Ovada, Alessandria, 1943), who obtained a patent for it in 1936 with the definition 'Table containing everything necessary for the service of meals'. The most singular characteristic of the piece is in fact that, thanks to a transmission belt and a system of weights and counterweights, various tiers containing everything needed for a complete meal from antipasto to coffee can be raised from its central part by turning a hand crank. In this way, the diners could consume the meal without having to get up and without the aid of service staff. The reference of the name (L'Autarca) to the campaign for economic self-sufficiency launched by Mussolini from 1936 is evident.

Gallery

Novecento a tavola — wolf2

Autarca

Autarca, part.

Autarca, part.

Bartoli, sala da pranzo

Menu Autarca

Sala da pranzo Zaccari