Renato Bassoli
Chaise-longue

RENATO BASSOLI (1915 -1982)

Patinated metal and rope chaise-longue with anthropomorphic element that evokes in its form Canova's Paolina Bonaparte.

Italy, c. 1950

Cm 132 x 190 x 93.

Renato Bassoli, born in Milan in 1915, trained at the Accademia di Brera , later perfecting his skills at the Scuola Superiore di Arte Applicata of Castello Sforzesco. His creativity sought an outlet through the different voices of art: from sculpture to graphics, from set design to the design of jewellery and furnishing elements, his stylistic style declined on different materials, capturing the endemic characteristics in each. The large production of works in ceramics, of which the 'Sassi' series is remembered, after the Second World War, was flanked by elements in metal, perhaps imagined during the master's stay in a prison camp in Germany. Here, the geometric figures of the new works are forged with cold iron while the anthropomorphic elements are made of natural materials such as ceramics, straw or rope. In the chaise longue presented, it is the latter that makes the reclining figure concrete, evoking with the criss-crossing of the top, the sinews and veins of Paolina Bonaparte. In general, within his production, furniture items are very rare as they are never put into large-scale production and made, as in this case, in unique pieces. 

Provenance: Milan, Atelier Renato Bassoli.