Fornasetti Surrealist Themes & Variations Plate, #18, Fornasetti, “Circles”

The Fornasetti porcelain plate in the Themes & Variation pattern depicts a depiction of the face of Lina Cavalieri, Piero Fornasetti’s muse. The plate is within its original black & white presentation box with gilt highlights.

Diameter: 10 inches x 1 inch high

Mark: In white on a black square, Tema E Variazioni, a hand holding a pen and Fornasetti Milano/Made in Italy with the pattern # above and below a printed black and white eye.

Reference:
Fornasetti

The image that inspired Fornasetti to coin the title ‘Tema e Variazioni’, is the enigmatic face of a woman: the opera singer Lina Cavalieri.

He found that now iconic face as he leafed through a 19th-century French magazine and became fascinated. Taking her as much as a muse and as a motif, he would return to Lina Cavalieri’s face again and again throughout his career. The archetypal classic female features and enigmatic expression of Lina Cavalieri became Fornasetti’s most frequently used template and upon which he based more than 350 variations.