Elio Martinelli for Martinelli Luce.

ELIO MARTINELLI for Martinelli Luce.
Pair of table lamps "Elmetto", design 1976.
Modeled resin.
With adjustable hemispherical diffuser to direct the light.
Measurements: 28 x 22 cm (diameters, x2).
The Elmetto table lamp was designed by Elio Martinelli in 1976 for Martinelli Luce. Elmetto, which means "wheel" in Italian, clearly describes the lamp's design with its angular shade on a conical base. It was designed to occupy small spaces. Thanks to the adjustable shade, the light can be direct or more diffused.
Trained by the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence as a set designer; Elio Martinelli begins to take his first steps in the field of luminaire in the business of his father Plinio. After a few years and after several experiences in the scenography sector, he decides to start his own business focusing initially on interior design and set-up of stores, restaurants, hotels and pubs. Due to the need to finish his plans, he drew and made the lighting fixtures on his own. During the 50's, Elio accentuates his simple and rigorous inspiration giving a strong impulse to his company that becomes a point of reference for Italian design in the geometry of lighting and nature considered from its many forms. A crescendo of intuitions and experimentations using new materials such as methacrylate. From these first tests were born very different lamps such as Foglia, Bolle, Cobra or Biconica.
Elio Martinelli was an inexhaustible source of ideas and innovation whose design objects such as Cobra, Bolla, Semisfera and many others are still examples of this original design impulse.