Giancarlo Mattioli

Giancarlo Mattioli was an Italian designer, urban planner, portrait painter and architect who was born in Bologna in 1933. His interest in art started from a young age, and he never stopped cultivating his passion for drawing, a passion passed down to him by his teachers. Mattioli studied Architecture in Florence, and after graduating in 1961, he founded the Urban Architects Group “Città Nuova” together with Pierluigi Cervellati, Umberto Maccaferri, Franco Morelli, Gianpaolo Mazzucato, and Mario Zaffagnini. Mattioli was known for thinking outside of the box; he was an intellectual with a true civil passion.

Mattioli's work often stretched beyond product design, and he played a pivotal role in the shaping of Bologna’s urban landscape through decades of his public service and contribution to major city planning initiatives. Most noticeably, he was the technical author of the late 1960s historical urban plans of the Bologna Municipality.

Soon he was labelled as a designer of the modern classic, especially after the release of the Artemide Nesso Table Lamp, which is still in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York and was quickly followed by the smaller Nessino Table Lamp in 1967. Sadly, Giancarlo Mattioli passed away in 2018, aged 85.