Between artistic vision and craftsmanship

The latest in Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance's NDL Editions, Madonna del Monte is a limited-edition collection of small tables that pays homage to the Venetian lagoon and the magic of Murano glass

Madonna del Monte by NDL

The Madonna del Monte collection, which was presented at Steinway & Sons in April during Milano Design Week and has been on display in Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s Paris studio since June 5, takes its name from a small island in the northern Venetian lagoon. The island, or rather the two tongues of land that once joined it, can be seen on the way to Murano and has been deserted and abandoned for more than a century, lapped by the greenish waters of the sea. The perpetual motion of the waves and a series of photographs by Lucie Jean entitled Down by the water inspired the designer to create this new limited edition NDL collection, which always seeks a refined balance between design, natural materials and craftsmanship.

For the small tables that make up the Madonna del Monte series, pieces that reveal the designer’s early training as a sculptor, the material chosen is glass, expertly worked by the masters of Murano: chosen by the designer for the magic with which this organic yet solidified material is able to reproduce in the thickness of the table tops the color of the seawater typical of the Venice lagoon and the ripples of the waves in perpetual motion that lap the island’s shores. A shore that metaphorically becomes the small tables geometric aluminum structure in seven different compositions and sizes: three round, two “squircle”, square with rounded corners, a rectangle and a console. After Milan, the entire collection will be on display until September 2 at the studio of Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance in Paris, at 8, Passage de La Bonne Graine.