***This Item Has Been Sold***
Three Piece Hammered Metal Panel
From Incres Lines' MV VICTORIA
Stairtower Sun
by Emanuele Luzzati

Items from MV VICTORIA I (ex DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, VICTORIA, THE VICTORIA, PRINCESA VICTORIA)

Hammered Metal Panel Mounted On Wood
Three Dimensional "Sun" Centerpiece
71 Inches Tall
43.5 Inches Wide
Price:  ***SOLD***

The VICTORIA's Sun Panels as seen from Rendez-vous Deck. Top, the starboard panel. Bottom, the port side panel, which is the one being offered here. Photos and copyright Peter Knego 1997.

In every aspect, Incres Line's VICTORIA was a sheer delight. It is incredible that most of her 1959-commissioned artwork survived all the way until the ship's beaching at Alang in 2004. So much of her Pulitzer furniture and Luzzati artworks had been used and enjoyed by legions of passengers spanning three active careers (Incres' VICTORIA, Chandris' THE VICTORIA, Louis' PRINCESA VICTORIA) and four decades.

Close ups of portions of the panel. Photos and copyright Peter Knego 2006.

There were two of these panels on the ship but only one will be available here for sale. The metal surfacing is a combination of gold and silver. The gold patina was painted on by Luzzati, himself. There are two large flat pieces with metal mounts to support the third, sun element. This is a particularly rare and stunning panel that may have at one time been illuminated. There are minute holes in the circumfrence of the sun's support ring that could feasibly emanate rays of light behind the sun.

Emanuele Luzzati's shipboard contributions go back many decades.  In collaboration with the great triumvirate of Italian designers Gio Ponti, Nino Zoncada, and Gustavo Pulitzer, he and many other key artists contributed works that adorned a gamut of famous ships from CONTE BIANCAMANO to ANDREA DORIA and OCEANIC.  Luzzati is well known in Italy, not just for his ceramics, but his paintings, illustrations (several children's books), stage designs, and animation.  There is a museum and gallery in Genoa, where he still resides, dedicated to his works.

With many thanks to Italian ship historian Paolo Piccione and Mr. Luzzati's curator, I was able to interview the wonderful man in October of 2005 at his museum in Porto Antico, Genoa. He explained his creative process with this type of work. First, in reverse, he pressed the composition into the thin metal (aluminum, copper, or nickel) and then, once finished with the work, filled it in with a plaster-like substance. Once set, he cemented the work onto wood panels.