?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
GIOVANNI MATALONI (1869-1944) INCANDESCENZA. 1896. 59x38 1/2 inches, 150x98 cm. Instituto Cartigrafico Italiano, Rome. Condition B: wrinkles and discoloration in left margin; foxing in margins; vertical and horizontal folds. Two sheets. Italian artists brought Art Nouveau to an unequaled level of elegant, allegorical, decorative exuberance. Mataloni became a lithographic apprentice at Milan's famed Ricordi Studio in 1891. Throughout his career Mataloni worked with different publishers, printers and magazines (for whom he did illustrations, covers and advertising). In 1895 he designed a poster for Bec-Auer lamps which propelled him, and the Italian Liberty Style, to fame. That design was chosen for the prestigious Maitres de l'Affiche series. Here, for the same Lamp Company, he advertises two kinds of incandescent lamps, one with wire gauze, the other an oil lamp. The image allegorically depicts light being pulled out of the darkness. The image is surrounded by a stunning decorative border of tall flowers.
