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THE FOUR ELEMENTS
Since Empedocles, citizen of Agrigentum, developed his belief that all matter was composed of four elements Earth, Water, Air and Fire mankind has never stopped questioning these themes.
The philosophical speculation combined with Pythagoras' theorem rationalised the study of physics and mathematics creating the base of modern European Science.
Plato endowed the idea of the real existence of a perfect world superior to the world we see, imperfect, adding a fifth element, Aether, which went beyond the simple study of the material matter of things. He associated a solid geometric form to each of the elements representing their characteristics.
Whoever visits the furnaces on the island of Murano relives the magic of seeing matter transmute. And if it is not the philosophical stone sought by the Alchemists, the tradition of colour on Murano still today contains this almost magical appearance, astounding, by blending in the right measures other elements to sand transforming it into glass with an almost infinite range of colours.
Created by Roberto Assenza and developed together with Francesco De Rossi, the luminaire "THE FOUR ELEMENTS" revisits the theme of the Venetian chandelier translated into an a form of sophisticated artistic expression which at times can be overly exaggerated.
The effort was focused on making the concepts recognisable without falling into the trap of being overly ornate, achieving an objective, the essential idea of each detail by drawing on the Murano glassmaking tradition.
The vertical configuration follows one of the concepts which regulates how the details and features are arranged.
Beginning with the Element Earth, the most static of all the elements, the kingdom of minerals, vegetation and animals, motherly and nutritious, and base of the five Platonic solids.
Water follows, with its continuous flow evaporating to fall again on the earth making it fertile.
Air, this element creates the dividing line between the earth and the sky, that vital breeze that transforms.
Fire the first of the superior elements, the lightest and most free moving, the only with the power to transmute metal. Fire stolen from the Gods by Prometheus is the beginning of humankind.
At the apex the Pythagorean star which encloses in its geometry the magic Golden Section, the number identifying universal proportion and harmony intended as a simplification of the starred Platonic dodecahedron representing the fifth element, the quintessence, Ether. |
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EARTH
The element Earth has always been associated to a true divinity, creator and guardian of the mineral, vegetable and animal worlds; the Great Mother Earth united with Heaven created life. This element encompasses all the others and hence is considered the most sacred of all.
Feminine par excellence, this element is represented by a square and by the Platonic solid hexahedron – cube – in contraposition to the Circle symbol of Heaven. The connection between these two figures, square inside a circle represents the universe created by this union, symbols of matter and spirit.
For the Pythagoreans to square a circle expressed the maximum human perfection. For Leonardo the Vitruvian Man is the canon of this perfection. Agrippa Von Netteshiem symbolically describes, at a higher level, the ascent of man toward a spiritual being according to the Neoplatonic theories represented by a five point star inside a circle.
We have represented this element in a number of colours: amber for earth, gold for the mineral world guarded by earth, green the vegetable and animal worlds within earth.
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WATER
The most diffused substance on the earth consisting of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen.
The only element in nature which takes on all three of the physical states: solid – ice, liquid, water gaseous-vapour. Thales studied the property of water and developed the idea that Water was the main creator of all things through its transformation from one physical state to another.
Considered as the giver of life, purifier and sacred. Where there is no water there is no life.
It is always, even when it seems motionless, in movement. Relentless in its perpetual flow.
The element which possesses the gravity of the earth, the impalpability of air and the mobility of fire.
Plato associated the icosahedron to Water, the solid which contains the highest number of equilateral triangles, representing how water can manifest itself in the three physical states.
We have represented Water in its most evocative colour, aquamarine, associated with the green of the depths of the sea, in its ascent upwards to then fall again on the earth making it fertile. |
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AIR
The second superior element representing what is gaseous penetrating everything.
Anaximenes considered Air as the element creator of the others, considering that water cannot create fire, whereas fire cannot exist without air.
Zeno and his school of thought considered that the relationship between Air and Fire was the origin of Pneuma – Spirit – which transforms all matter. Air as vital breath, the dividing line between the earth and heaven, between what is material and what is spiritual; the place where the lower elements are transformed, earth and water, and where water is the means when in a water vapour state.
Plato associated the octahedron with air, a geometric solid midway between the icosahedron and tetrahedron, considering Air as the element with an intermediary role between water and fire.
It was not simple to turn an immaterial element into a material element. The choice was that of creating a design free from conventional forms which expresses the idea of fluidity expanding limitlessly. The colours - crystal, light violet and gold.
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FIRE
The first superior element, the lightest and most dynamic. Masculine par excellence.
Heraclitus considered that Fire, together with the Logos, intended as the fundamental order of the cosmos, determined the eternal becoming, Logos and Fire as Thought and Action.
Intended as an active force, light and heat, representing the idea of the spirit and illumination. Fire stolen from the Gods by Prometheus is the beginning of the story of humankind and with the power to transmute metals. The energy which purifies and regenerates nature. Fire has always been associated with the Sun and Mars. Plato associated the tetrahedron to Fire, the most dynamic of the geometric solids and which reproduces only itself.
Red and amber are colours which characterise our chandelier, tongues of fire ascending toward the sky expressing the nature of this element and gold representing the cosmic creativity of heat. |
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