CG Capelletti's Wonderful Salone Exhibition

Written by: Alice Braglia

SALONE DEL MOBILE ESSAY ON C.G. Capelletti

One of the most interesting exhibitions at Salone del Mobile was the one made by C.G. Capelletti, which displayed ‘classical style’ interiors. Their installation really caught my eye instantly, and going inside I could look carefully at every detail of the furniture displayed: I was amazed.

The whole installation had such a great harmony between the shapes, the colors, and the spaces, and it reflected completely my personal aesthetic. I was so fascinated by their ability in creating something so ‘perfect’ between the parts, that I thought to myself: this is a piece of art, they must be the masters of this style. Every single part of it was so pleasant that I couldn’t believe how much work they must have had to put into creating it, so I decided to inform myself a little bit on their work, and here’s a little bit of their story…

C.G. Capelletti was born in Meda in 1861, and it was a tiny shop created by Mr. Antonio Capelletti. The city of Meda, then a small village, has always been famous for handicrafts and furniture production. In fact there were many master cabinetmakers, carvers, decorators, and gilders, able to interpret the ancient styles and to develop their own models. As the tradition goes, even for Mr. Capelletti, processing of the products was carried out for third parties, primarily for large companies in the area.

Antonio Capelletti had a great passion for the ‘in stile’ furniture and the first few articles were wonderful bedrooms in baroque style, along with some prototypes of chairs. They taught not only technical skills, but also human values. So did Antonio with his son Angelo, who later in 1911 took the reins of the company, making a big change: instead of working for third parties, he started working by himself and created his own models, taking inspiration from Renaissance style. Moreover, he began to sell directly his own furniture, bringing them to the general market in the city of Milan. In the 1970’s, Claudio Capelletti (Angelo’s nephew) started to work with the company and, always maintaining the real tradition of handmade furniture, he decided to explore the international market, taking the company through an important step of modernization. Recently, his son Diego joined the company to embrace the secrets of this ancient art and take it forward through time and following all the stages of production, but also beginning to establish contacts with customers to better understand their needs and tastes. He also realizes his own collections, especially in the Baroque style, which lead proudly to the international fair Salone del Mobile in Milan. Every single item is faithfully reproduced, from antique pieces in the proportions, materials and finishes. CG Capelletti has the opportunity to present in the market not only unique reproductions, but also adaptions to his customer needs, changing the details of each item according to his need. Nowadays, the company has established itself among the leaders of the sector, making furniture for private villas, hotels, restaurants, public places, and even yacht design.

When you enter their installation at Salone del Mobile, you can see a big door at the front, with a beautiful bouquet of red flowers, which recalls the theme of nature realized on the furniture details. In fact, what I loved the most about their display is the extremely graceful and elegant way with which they embraced nature into their aesthetic, using just a hint of gold, black, and soft green, all surrounded with a clean and bright white which gave an intense feeling of light, even if the booth clearly had no windows on the outside and was inside of a big pavilion. That’s a great aspect that I think worked out really well: they used blank spaces and big mirrors to enlarge their area and make it look naturally luminous. The choice of the colors was brilliant: only neutral and natural shades, used in the right amount, creating the most elegant and peaceful environment, enviable to the other installations.

I think the one thing that for me made C.G. Capelletti’s installation stand out among the others from the ‘classic style’, was their simplicity in recreating such beautiful pieces without exaggerating; the room was never too full with objects or furniture, everything was essential and very refined, which I believe to be an important thing to keep in mind when recreating this baroque style: not to exaggerate. In their installation, everything was coordinated in a perfect measure. In the left room, they hung huge mirrors that had the illustrations of some tropical leaves and palms on the glass, surrounded by a very fine gold frame, and this was the most tasteful and elegant way to add real, nature figures into this luxury and ladylike interior design. All of this balance and harmony between the furnishings reminds me of the main attempt that the exponents of Art Nouveau had: to create a total work of art, where everything fits together perfectly. More than anything it reminded me of famed designer Henry Van de Velde: everything he designed was handmade and had to fit in with every single detail of the interior, and to achieve this he also used to design the garments for the people who were supposed to live in there, so they would never look out of place. Some other features that can be easily traced back to the Art Nouveau style are the whiplash motive, highly recurrent in the gold details and finishes of the pieces, as well as the nature decorations all over the furniture: chairs, doors, sofas, mirrors, lamps, tables and closets. To be honest, there’s nothing I found that turned out wrong in the C.G. Capelletti’s installation, everything worked out in a very efficient way, especially the entrance that really invited you to come in and look at every single piece with amazement. To sum up, I think that the most important values achieved by their interior are:

- Aesthetic: they created the most aesthetically pleasant room in all of its parts, leaving white spaces to keep it simple and not overwhelming or heavy looking, using maximum 4 neutral colors, and reproducing the fineness of nature in the most graceful way.

- Cultural: although C.G. Capelletti may look extremely modern for the way he arranges the room, the shapes and the colors of his designs, he takes most of his inspiration from the Renaissance and baroque styles, keeping alive these iconic periods for design and bringing them to our days in a very honorable way.

- Persuasive: they staged a beautiful entrance with symmetrical furniture on the left and right, facing mirrors, all guiding you to a magnificent black door in front of you, finished in gold details, and with a gorgeous table with a bouquet of deep red flowers on top of it. The white spaces and walls also conveyed a feeling of neatness and elegance that really got you into a peaceful and delighted mood. All of these are the features that in my opinion can easily convince the customers to purchase or to invest in their beautiful work, where quality, taste and elegance are the main properties. ​