A Da Vinci for Today

Edited by Annie Block -- Interior Design, 3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Architect, painter, and industrial and graphic designer, Roberto Sambonet was indisputably a Renaissance man. Though he studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano, he decided to become a painter, completing further studies at the São Paulo Art Institute. In the 1950's, he began designing for his family's flatware company, Sambonet, as well as Baccarat and went on to win four Compasso d'Oro awards. As if all that weren't enough, he also served as art director for Zodiac magazine.

Opening April 8 at the Palazzo Madama in Turin, Italy, “Roberto Sambonet Designer, Grafico, Artista (1924-1995)” delves into this polymath's creative process. The tabletop items, graphics, drawings, and paintings on display, more than 600 of them, bear witness to Sambonet's passion for interpreting life and nature through design.

Clockwise from top: The Roberto Sambonet retrospective at the Palazzo Madama in Turin, Italy, includes his 1952 drawing Schizo phrenic in india ink. An ad for his Electrogas saucepan, first-prize winner at the 1960 Triennale di Milano. His 1983 watercolor of an architecture professor's library.