GIO PONTI - LIBERO ANDREOTTI
- RICHARD GINORI

Cista "The Classical Conversation", 1924- 25 (ideation); 1927 (realization)
White porcelain decorated in chrome and hand painted in purple, gray and gold with agate point, h. 57 cm; d. 31,5 cm
Golden signature under the base: "Gio Ponti"
Marked under the base: "Richard - Ginori Pittoria di Doccia, 27 = 4"
Titled printed under the base: La Conversazione Classica

The cista "La Conversazione Classica" is one of the most famous pontiana inventions, conceived and elaborated between 1924 and 1925. The format is inspired by similar Etruscan containers (the famous "Cista Ficoroni" conserved at the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome) preserve objects used for female cosmetics, a kind of container transformed by Ponti into a large and luxurious ornamental vase. The clear classical matrix decoration, made up of characters, cherubs, animals and architectural or furnishing elements reused later by Ponti in objects of smaller dimensions, follows that of "La Passeggiata Archeologica", dating back to 1923, and both are inspired by antiquities of Herculaneum exposed and other archaeological sources. The winged figures of the socket and the supports are due to the sculptor Libero Andreotti. A similar example, dating back to 1924-1925, with purple figures like ours but with a slightly different shape, is part of the collections of the Richard Museum - Ginori of the Manufacture of Doccia in Sesto Fiorentino (inv.3694). A well-known variant, with figures in green and blue, will be made specifically for Ugo and Fernanda Ojetti by Richard - Ginori in 1927, translated into a pair of cyst today conserved at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.Our example, dated 1927, is almost identical in form and decoration, with the only variant of the color of the figures, to the exemplar Ojetti inventariato with the number357, while it differs from its pendant , inventoried with the n.3358, for the position and the style of draping of the winged woman that constitutes its grip, as well as for the arrangement of the figures on a more simplified background that traces that of "La Pa sseggiata Archeologica ".
(Scientific record by Carla Cerutti)

LITERATURE
AA.VV., "Museo Poldi Pezzoli. Ceramiche-Vetri. Mobili e Arredi", Electa Editrice, Milan, 1983, p. 34, No. 428-429, ill. n. 184, 185;
AA.VV., "Una dolce vita? Dal Liberty al design italiano 1900-1940", Skira, Milan, 2015, p.167, n ° 148;
AA.VV., "Gio Ponti. La collezione del Museo Richard – Ginori della Manifattura di Doccia", Maretti Editore, Florence, 2015, p. 180/182, No. 95;
V. TERRAROLI edited by, "Art Déco. Gli anni ruggenti in Italia 1919-1930", Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2017, p. 265, No. 9.3

PROVENANCE
Ex Giuseppe Bottai Collection