As is well illustrated in the exhibition Art D\u00e9co. Il trionfo della modernit\u00e0<\/em><\/strong>, curated by Valerio Terraroli<\/strong> and open until 29 June at Palazzo Reale in Milan, Italian excellence instantly caught the international audience\u2019s eye: the Murano-based glassmaker V.S.M. Cappellin Venini & C.<\/strong>, <\/strong>managed by Giacomo Cappellin and Paolo Venini, presented vases, bowls and trays designed by its artistic director Vittorio Zecchin<\/strong>, winning the Grand Prix (although unfortunately during the Expo the two partners separated); Societ\u00e0 Ceramica<\/strong> Richard-Ginori<\/strong>, with the ceramic vases, cistas and pitchers by Gio Ponti<\/strong>, all fascinating yet complex productions that brought new life to the classic patterns, borrowed from archaeology, so dear to the Milanese architect. Besides, Ponti had his own idea of modernity that, as he wrote in a famous aphorism, doesn’t consist in \u201cadopting four squared pieces of furniture\u201d, but if anything has to do with the re-elaboration and intelligent synthesis of models of the past<\/strong>. One example is the majolica vase La Casa degli Efebi<\/em>, an ode to the transformative power of architecture: hand-painted by the artistic department of the manufacturing company, it portrays ancient architectural elements in which elegant ephebes move (or rest). Or again, the majolica vase Prospettica<\/em>, inspired by classical perspective rules used to create an illusion in which each of the cells drawn on the surface in turn contain a tiny vase, bowl or geometric shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gio Ponti, who worked for Richard-Ginori from 1922, was not only their art director \u201cante litteram\u201d but was also a brilliant innovator of the conventional ceramic language that in those years began to work with industrial techniques such as moulding. Attentive to all production phases, Ponti periodically travelled from Milan to Sesto Fiorentino, where the manufacturing took place, to see the results of his ideas for himself, and corresponded frequently with the head of the artistic sector. \u201cPonti played a role that he somehow invented himself, that of the art director who defines the company\u2019s areas of development,\u201d the design critic Domitilla Dardi<\/strong> explained in a conversation with Valerio Terraroli. \u201cIn that period the foundations were laid for that which after the war was to become \u201cMade in Italy\u201d<\/strong>, through the transformation of artisanal workshops into manufacturing industries, seeking to bring craft skills into industrial mass production.\u201d In this respect, Dardi and Terraroli also mention the group Il Labirinto<\/strong>, founded by Tomaso Buzzi, Emilio Lancia, Pietro Chiesa, Paolo Venini, Michele Marelli and Ponti with a view to designing and producing luxury furniture, vases, lamps, fabrics and furnishing complements, also presented at the III Biennale in Monza in 1927. \u201cPonti brought together other names from the design world and, in doing so, anticipated that which still happens today in the artistic management of renowned Italian brands, building a catalogue of different authors<\/strong>,\u201d the two scholars conclude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/humusdev.irisceramicagroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/9-768x1024.jpg\")