Theme & Variations Decorative Plate #288 (Half Skull Face) 

This is Fornasetti's *Theme & Variations Decorative Plate #288 (Half Skull Face).* In the postwar era, Italian designer Piero Fornasetti created a series of plates featuring the face of 19th-century opera singer, Lina Cavalieri. He stated, "What inspired me to create more than 500 variations on the face of a woman? I don’t know, I began to make them and I never stopped." This particular plate, starkly bisected between the living and the dead, powerfully merges beauty with mortality. The division of the skull and face can reflect the multifaceted nature of identity, as well as a visual exploration of life and death, or the conscious and the subconscious. Fornasetti’s choice of a female face adds layers of meaning, touching on the historical objectification of women in art and the transience of beauty. It serves as a reminder of our shared mortality, inviting us to consider how we confront our own existence.