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      The history of wallpaper, from the Renaissance to the present day

      The history of wallpaper, from the Renaissance to the present day

      01 / 21

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      The essentials: flatware that made design history

      Triumphal Arch, Albrecht Dürer, 1515

      The German artist's masterpiece, consisting of 195 separate wood blocks each measuring 3.57 by 2.95 meters, depicts an allegorical monument to the life of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and his family.

      Some examples of the first edition of 700 sets are now preserved in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

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      01 / 21
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      Les vues d’Amerique du Nord, Jean-Julien Deltil, 1834, Zuber

      The "Panoramiques" series, produced by France's oldest wallpaper manufacturer using the wood plank technique, was originally designed in 1797 and is still being produced today using the same original planks. Views of North America, a majestic and optimistic American panorama stretching across an entire wall, was made popular again in the 1960s when Jackie Kennedy chose it as her new decoration when she moved into the White House.

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      01 / 21
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      Larkspur, William Morris, Jeffrey&CO, 1874

      Despite a not always unanimous consensus, William Morris is perhaps the designer who has most magnified the decorative typology of wallpaper, not only through a prolific and fortunate production that is still widely distributed today but above all with a design capable of restoring in a romantic key the richness and spontaneity of the natural world without retracing it in a hyper-realistic manner. His best-known motifs include Willow Bough, Acanthus, James', Larkspur, and Saladin.

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      01 / 21
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      Indian wallpaper, Christopher Dresser, 1879

      Considered to be the first industrial designer, Christopher Dresser developed an extensive production of wallpapers that was far different from Morris's vision. Dry, flat, strongly marked by symmetries, Dresser's design highlights the essence of natural motifs, always centered on the rigorous supremacy of linear forms.

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      01 / 21
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      Roses, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1915-1923

      If Mackintosh is considered the definitive overcoming of English naturalism and historicism, his famous rose pattern – designed in collaboration with his wife Margaret Macdonald together with Herbert and Frances MacNair – betrays an explicit figurativism, even if stylized through staggered circular elements. A reference to medieval as well as Masonic symbolism, the rose in its many variations is a recurring element to embellish furniture, fabrics and wallpapers.

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      01 / 21
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      Claudia, Dagobert Peche, Flammersheim & Steinmann, 1923

      One of the most prolific authors of the Wiener Werkstätte, of which he was also the director, Dagobert Peche produced about 45 designs for fabrics and wallpapers. Claudia, one of the most famous of these, perfectly illustrates the plurality of underlying iconographic references, from classicism to Biedermeier, while standing out for the clear synthesis and formal quality expressed through the abstractness of planes and contours.

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      01 / 21
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      Brasilliance, Dorotyh Draper, 1937

      Brazilliance is the first tropical explosion celebrated by wallpaper. It employs the botanical theme by changing its latitude and magnifying the banana leaf as a lush and vital expression of decorative maximalism. The paper was designed by Dorothy Draper for the lobby of the Californian hotel Arrowhead Springs and soon became a point of reference for a long series of followers inspired by the foliage of Caribbean and South American plants.

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      01 / 21
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      Mediterranea, Fornasetti, Cole and Son, ’40

      Designed for the atrium of Piero Fornasetti's house in Milan, this wallpaper is a hymn to the urban landscape and vernacular Mediterranean architecture. In the intricate juxtaposition of houses and buildings, all aimed at enhancing the smallest detail, it is the golden colour that brightens up the black and white of the drawing, highlighting the gentle curve of the domes.

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      01 / 21
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      Michael Clark, Woods, Cole and Sone, 1959

      An accurate depiction of a birch forest in the winter months and often used in children's rooms, Woods by Michael Clark has established itself over the years as a new classic because of its realistic depiction of the details of a natural environment. In addition to the classic original black and white version, it is also available in a wide range of colors. 

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      01 / 21
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      Kabuki, Florence Broadhurst, ‘60

      Australian painter Florence Broadhurst, who created more than five hundred wallpaper designs, often referred to Japanese art, reinterpreting naturalistic motifs or drawing inspiration from abstract decorative elements. With Kabuki, the hand fan from the famous theatre play is re-proposed in a rigorous composition with a geometric line, one of the most famous pieces in Broadhurst's production.

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      01 / 21
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      Les Touches, Brunschwig & Fils, 1965

      Les Touches features one the most famous abstract motifs in the production of wallpaper of all time. With its soft repeating waves, this dotted pattern almost seems to refer to a very vague and indefinite decorative motif. Timeless and versatile, it is available in a wide range of colors.

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      01 / 21
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      St. Laurent, de Gournay, 1986

      A reproduction of an 18th-century chinoiserie-style wallpaper in the home of Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, the St. Laurent design, rigorously hand-painted on Xuan paper in Shanghai by the French brand de Gournay, comes to life on full-size papers that stand out like domestic frescoes.

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      01 / 21
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      RGB, Carnovsky, Jannelli & Volpi, 2010

      Artists Silvia Quintanilla and Francesco Rugi play with overlapping patterns in primary colors to give lysergic depth to the drawings of Ulissa Aldrovandi, Carlo Linneo, and Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, reproduced here on a large scale to reinforce their evocative effect. 

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      01 / 21
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      Layers Paper, Richard Hutten, Designwall, 2012

      Originally commissioned by curator Suzanne Oxenaar to decorate a temporary hotel in Tokyo, this wallpaper was originally conceived by Richard Hutten as a succession of strips of tape with different motifs covering all the surfaces of the room, and was only later transformed into a single roll. His taste for everyday symbols and words, here combined in a spontaneous and almost random way, underlines the wallpaper's good-natured pop character, bringing it closer to the aesthetics of a temporary installation.

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      01 / 21
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      Job 04 Alt Deutsch, Studio Job, NLXY, 2014

      The Antwerp-based studio's maximalist decorativism is best expressed in Alt Deutsch, a wallpaper that playfully re-proposes a selection of motifs from their archive. The intricate composition, which is nine meters long with absolutely no repetition of figures, is emphasized by the black outline around each element, while the Gothic aura is demolished, at a closer look, by the ironic and irreverent pop taste of the individual designs.

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      01 / 21
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      Interactive wallpaper, Alexandre Echasseriau, 2016

      Printed with conductive ink and connected to an external control box, this musical wallpaper can be activated by touching it with your hand, transforming the walls of the room into a sound playground to be explored and personalized thanks also to music tracks that can be downloaded from the dedicated website.

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      01 / 21
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      Bloom, twenty2, (3D or anaglyph wallpaper), 2017

      This experimental wallpaper, developed by the American company twenty2 together with the Pratt Institute, reproduces the design of a cactus, adding depth through the use of staggered colour levels. In order to admire its three-dimensional effect, it is necessary to wear special glasses equipped with two complementary colour filters.

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      01 / 21
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      Clean-up, Alhambretto, Wall&Deco, 2017

      A reinterpretation of the terrazzo effect that has had such a strong influence on interior design in recent years, Clean-up is distinguished by its composition of vertical and diagonal lines that stand out against a grit background. Conceived for the bathroom, the wallpaper is provided with a fiberglass waterproofing sheath to withstand humid environments.

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      01 / 21
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      Luna II, Senem Oezdogan, Texturae, 2017

      Luna II is an extremely large vinyl wallpaper (1 meter x 1 meter) that brings a particularly light feel to the room. Its abstract pattern, inspired by Atlantic nights, combines dark patches of colour and vibrant hints of colour that stand out against a white background.

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      01 / 21
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      Geometrico rosa e verde, Elena Carozzi

      Inspired by the tiles that can be found in almost every Mediterranean home, this wallpaper hand-painted in a mixed technique gives depth to the room thanks to the three-dimensional effect of the cubes that betray geometric rigor through variations in size and inclination.

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      01 / 21
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