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Angelo Orsoni
When Angelo Orsoni set out for Paris in 1889, little could he have guessed at the success his courageous, original idea was to bring him. One thing is certain, though: this man of forty or thereabouts with his strong, resolute air, was taking a crucial gamble. For Orsini aimed to show the world - and above all himself - that a place of honour could be assigned to an ancient and noble medium - mosaic - within the vast enclosures of the Great Exhibition in Paris, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and alongside the most avantgarde techniques that looked steadily towards the approaching twentieth century.
His success, when it came, was enormous. His multicoloured panel, which had been created as a sample collection of enamels and mosaic gold, but immediately acquired artistic status and was considered as a sign of its maker's genius, represented Orsoni's first goal in a life dedicated to mosaic. Angelo Orsoni was born in to a poverty stricken Murano family in the mid-nineteenth century. Since Murano was the cradle of international glass production Orsoni, like many of his contemporaries, spent his early years working in glass factories. But before long, what some of his colleagues considered a humble job became OrsonVs great passion, and he became especially skilled in making crystal, coloured glass and aventurine. He was discovered by the celebrated mosaicist Giandomenico Facchina who, after receiving an important commission from France, opened a factory making mosaic tesserae in Venice, and offered Orsoni a job producing enamels. Encouraged by his success, Facchina moved to France. Young Angelo was reluctant to follow him, held back not only by his love of Venice but by his firm conviction that he could become a success in his own right in his native city. Facchina presented his valued assistant with the Venetian workshop and immediately became his best client: it was 1888.
The following year, the Great Exhibition was held in Paris. This was the age of Art Nouveau, when mosaic ceased to be regarded simply as a medium for religious works of art, and was used for the first time in secular art and decoration. Mosaic production enjoyed a healthy revival. At the start of the new century, Angelo Orsoni transferred his business from its primitive headquarters at the Misericordia to the Fondamenta di Cannareggio, where it is still situated.
Whilst he carried on experimenting with colour, Orsoni managed to display his genius in the field of technical innovation, introducing coal heating and inventing a rotating cylindrical press to compress the incandescent glass paste, in this way giving the tesserae a more even surface.
Orsoni ys name soon became linked to major projects such as those involving the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Trocadero, the Hotel de la Ville, the celebrated Opera House, the Sacre Coeur Cathedral in Paris, the Sanctuary at Lourdes and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, to name but a few.
When Angelo Orsoni died in 1921, his son Giovanni inherited a company that was by now established throughout Europe. Giovanni Orsoni did not betray this cultural, as well as technical, legacy. He was responsible for the wonderful mosaic decorations on the spires of Gaudi's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, for those inside the Altare delta Patria in Rome, and the astonishing Golden Room in Stockholm City Hall, where the Nobel Prizes are awarded.
Giovanni was assisted by his son Angelo, who took over the company on his father's death in 1935. The years of World War II created a brief pause in the Orsoni's activities, which were renewed with vigour and enthusiasm after the fighting ended, when Angelo was joined by his son Ruggero.
When his father died in 1969, Ruggero carried on the family business as tirelessly as ever, together with his brother Lucio, who added a new craft to the traditional production of enamels by opening a workshop manufacturing finished mosaics. Orsoni mosaics can now be admired in the furthest corners of the earth -from St. Christopher's in Belgium to Ataturk's Mauso-leumin Ankara, Westminster Abbey in London, the gilded domes and Buddhas in Bangkok, kings' palaces in Saudi Arabia, the Forum of Les Holies and Bassin de la Defence in Paris and the Pagoda of the Grand Palace of the Royal Family in Thailand. With the application of every single tessera Orsoni's history continues, as brilliant, as pure and as magical as the mosaics themselves.
Смальта Orsoni
cмальта Smalto
специальная смальта Special
телесная смальта Flesh
cмальта Fine
cмальта Imperial
обыкновенная смальта Ordinary
матовая смальта Mat
прозрачная смальта Trasparente
декоративная смальта Tessutti
золотая смальта Oro
императорская смальта
Золотая мозаика
Продажа смальты
Референции Орсони
Изготовление мозаики
Мозаика для бассейна
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