Dining Set with Giuseppe Rivadossi Chairs and Angelo Mangiarotti Dining Table

Italian architect, designer, teacher and urban planner Angelo Mangiarotti was a leading light in the international design community from the 1960s onward. While he was an adherent of the rationalist principles of purity of line and simplicity of construction, he sought to imbue his designs for coffee tables, dining chairs, sconces and other furnishings with a sense of character and lightness of spirit that was often lacking in late-20th-century modernist architecture and design. 

Born in Milan, Mangiarotti studied architecture at Milan Polytechnic, graduating in 1948. Five years later, he won a visiting professorship at the Illinois Institute of Technology — beginning a peripatetic academic career that would see him teaching in numerous Italian institutions as well as in schools as far afield as Hawaii and Australia. He worked with Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and met such greats as Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius. He returned to Italy in 1955 and would go on to work on numerous industrial, residential, commercial and civic projects in his home country, most notably a group of six railway stations in Milan.

As a designer, Mangiarotti and the development of his career embodies the evolution of modernism in the latter decades of the 20th century. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, after early experiments in plywood furniture and one-piece foam-core seating — including the 1110 lounge chair for Cassina — Mangiarotti began to design using more classic materials, from delicate, curvaceous blown-glass table lamps for Artemide to chandeliers with crystal links for Vistosi.

In 1971, Mangiarotti introduced what became his signature designs: a series of tables in marble and other stones that featured “gravity joints,” their legs held in place by the weight of the tabletop. Tables in his Eros collection have muscular proportions that anticipate the robust, overscaled lines of postmodern works that would appear 10 years later: His Eccentrico table, for example, is a striking assemblage in marble featuring a top that is cantilevered dramatically on a canted columnar base. 

But simplicity and practicality were consistently the primary watchwords of Mangiarotti’s designs. The purity and elegance of the objects he created offer a graceful counterpoint to a traditional decor, yet they have a singular sculptural presence that allows them to stand out powerfully in a modern interior.

Find vintage Angelo Mangiarotti furniture on 1stDibs.

Italian sculptor, furniture designer and maestro d’arte e mestiere (master of art and craft) Giuseppe Rivadossi is considered one of the 20th century’s leading woodworkers. His hand-carved, mid-century modern furniture has been described as poetic, ancient, ethereal and soulful.

Rivadossi was born in 1935 in Monteclana di Nave, where he still lives and works today. He began woodworking at an early age, learning the craft from his father, who founded a carpentry business in 1920. In 1962, Rivadossi took over his father’s workshop and transformed it into an artistic atelier, creating sculptural furniture and objets d’art.

Toward the late 1960s, Rivadossi’s friends and fellow woodworking artists encouraged him to exhibit his wooden sculptures at shows throughout Italy. In 1968, he participated in his first sculpture exhibition, which led to others throughout the 1970s, such as the Triennale di Milano in 1974 and the Biennale di Mentone in 1976. That same year, Rivadossi and several collaborators established Officina Rivadossi, which specialized in wooden objects, sculptures and modern furniture. Pieces included walnut dining room tables, oak sideboards and architectonic dining chairs and armchairs suitable for the home or office.

From the 1980s through the 2000s, Rivadossi’s designs took on a more organic, architectural approach. For instance, his Custodia Lombarda cabinet comprises two doors with hand-carved latticework that gradually reduces size. His decorative boxes with grooved textures, geometric patterns and curved forms also double as desktop sculptures. 

In 2013, Officina Rivadossi evolved to become Habito di Giuseppe Rivadossi, which Rivadossi runs with his two sons Emanuele and Clemente. Since then, the furniture firm has shown at numerous exhibitions, including Salone del Mobile di Milano, the London Design Festival, PAD Paris and BRAFA Art Fair, in Brussels. Also, in 2018, Rivadossi received the prestigious Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere award at the Triennale di Milano.

On 1stDibs, find a range of vintage and contemporary Giuseppe Rivadossi case pieces, tables and decorative objects.