Devised by Michele de Lucchi (b. 1951) and Giancarlo Fassina (b. 1935), the provocative Tolomeo table lamp was initially intended as an update on the pantographic table lamp — an effort by the Italian architect-designers to create a fully adjustable, user-centric modern lighting fixture that embodied functionalism as well as high design. The lamp, an all-time best seller for Milan lighting brand Artemide — and, reportedly, the most popular lighting design ever — remains a timeless artifact well into the 21st century, more than 30 years after its debut.

Northern Italy–born de Lucchi and Milan native Fassina designed the Tolomeo lamp prototype in 1986. While de Lucchi’s background was in architecture and industrial design, as is reflected in the functional sleekness of the Tolomeo, he also had a colorful creative history. After moving to Milan in the late 1970s, he befriended Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini and became one of the main activists for the Memphis Group, an unorthodox design collective founded by Sottsass. Fassina, a graduate of the Polytechnic University of Milan, was also a proponent of avant-garde ideas. Conceived with maximum flexibility and adaptability in mind, the Tolomeo table lamp was far more practical than anything else that de Lucchi and Fassina had designed up until that point.

“No desk lamp should make you use two hands to position it,” said de Lucchi. The Tolomeo’s arm and structure are made of extruded aluminum with a weighted steel base and minimal conical shade. Three points in the lamp — at the base, between the arms and at the diffuser — have adjustable nodes that allow the lamp to be positioned at several different heights and angles, and the head can swivel 360 degrees. Lightweight and slim, the Tolomeo table lamp’s forward-looking flexibility defies being limited to one kind of use and can fit into the design of any room. 

Since its original conception, Artemide has consistently expanded the Tolomeo family to include a range of sizes and modern innovations such as LED models. The classic Tolomeo table lamp is now available in desk, floor, wall, track and suspension models. Newer flourishes include dimmers, motion sensors for energy conservation and tunable white LED technology, which allows for variation in light intensity and color temperatures. But the Tolomeo table lamp has always been sharp and sophisticated, having won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award for Italian industrial design two years after its 1987 debut. It’s an internationally revered design, then and now.