TALL MARCELLO FANTONI TABLE LAMP WITH FIGURES

A tall, mid-century ceramic table lamp with figures in shades of yellow, blue, red, and green by master Italian ceramicist Marcello Fantoni. MARCELLO FANTONI (1915–2011) was born in Florence in 1915. He began studies at the Instituto d’Arte Porta Romana in Florence when he was twelve under the great ceramicist Carlo Guerrini. His training in the arts included sculpture classes with Libero Andreotti (1875–1933) and Bruno Innocenti (1906–1986) and instruction in figure drawing with the painter Gianni Vagnetti (1898–1956). Fantoni graduated from the institute as a maestro in 1934, and, after a stint as the art director of a ceramics factory in Perugia in neighboring Umbria, opened the Fantoni Ceramic Studio in Florence in 1936. Here he produced serial and individual pieces along with sculptures and furnishings. In 1937 Fantoni’s work was shown in the Florence National Arts and Crafts Exhibit. Its rustic forms and painted decoration commanded a lion’s share of the attention. By the onset