From the colorful characters of the 16th century commedia dell’arte appear the buoyant figures of Vanni Cuoghi and SchoenhuberFranchi’s artistic collection of plates for award-winning Chef Davide Oldani.
SchoenhuberFranchi’s proposals dedicated to the table focus on originality and aesthetic pursuit. The decision to create a mise en place that is personalized in terms of decorations and production techniques has given rise to a unique collection: the dessert plates dedicated to small pastries for the D’O restaurant of Michelin-starred chef Davide Oldani.
SchoenhuberFranchi & Vanni Cuoghi
An ad hoc project featuring the collaboration of artist Vanni Cuoghi, who, with his signature creativity and sensitivity, embellished the pâtisserie ceramics with his personal artistic interpretation. SchoenhuberFranchi’s Fjord flat plates become the canvas on which to paint true works of art. “When I imagined the plates for Davide, I wanted to combine, for the decoration, an image that, symbolically, referred to the seasons and the Italian tradition. So I thought of the commedia dell’arte and, to each mask, I attributed a season,” explains Vanni Cuoghi.
Thus the artist, armed with a paintbrush, created a carousel of evocative images, inspired by the commedia dell’arte of the 16th century, a type of sometimes irreverent theatrical spectacle of improvised dialogue and a cast of colorful characters that replaced tout court the erudite comedy of the 16th-18th centuries that is now conquered by the histrionic presence of the masks. The decorations on the plates draw precisely on the popular masks of yesteryear, each of which is associated by the artist with the representation of a season.
The Dessert Plates’ Jovial Figures
Spring: Pulcinella Enchanter
Spring has always been a symbol of rebirth: everything that seemed inanimate is regenerated. To represent the most lush and lively season of the year, Cuoghi chose the character of Pulcinella, transforming him into a flute-playing charmer: as if by magic, the spaghetti come alive following the rhythm of the music, like a sort of dance of life.Summer: Colombina Juggler
Colombina Juggler bursts into all her loveliness in the plate dedicated to summer. Although depicted strictly covered, she interprets the season of seduction, abundance, playfulness and joie de vivre.
Autumn: Pantalone Seeker
For autumn, Vanni Cuoghi chooses Pantalone cercatore. He depicts him with a pierced bag from which gold coins come out that he loses and eventually manages to retrieve. A symbolic image that introduces the theme of finding, in a figurative sense: even in life one finds what one thought lost, but nothing is truly lost.
Winter: Harlequin Surfer
The collection closes with the plate dedicated to the winter season. The protagonist is Harlequin depicted as he twirls on a kite, just like a surfer: the wind detaches the colors from his suit causing them to vibrate in the air, representing a seed sowing. The image here evokes the leitmotif of lightness colliding with the concept of time passing. As the artist illustrates, “In winter it always seems that something about us is gone when a year ends. When in reality we sow colors in space.”