Emanuele Luzzati was not only a painter, sculptor and animator but also one of Italy's finest scenic designers. This theatrical set of panels was an inspired backdrop for AUSONIA's first class passengers and is utterly breathtaking for its scope, scale and subject matter, which includes varied Italian and Roman Empire monuments and cathedrals (in this case, St. Jeanʼs Of Lyon, Veniceʼs St. Markʼs Basilica, Piazza San Marco in Venice, etc). The primary colors are blue, gray and black but there are small dashes of red, green and yellow hidden in the body of work. The condition overall is excellent, although some have a tinge of edge wear (most of the outer edges of the panel were concealed behind ceilings, carpet and adjoining bulkheads) and the patina of time. On a few, the shiny surfacing has small missing patches (thanks to latter day SOLAS tape and signs that were affixed to the panels) but the artwork has fortunately not been affected. This set of panels is 53 years old and has stood the test of time magnificently.

Luzzati passed away a couple years ago but not before he saw that much of his work from the great liners and cruise ships of the 1950s and 1960s was being saved for a new generation of admirers. There is a museum in Genoa dedicated to him in the New Siberia section of Porto Antico but unfortunately it is run by an indifferent curator and none of the work therein approaches the magnitude of his shipboard art, these works included.