This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Carlo Zen (1851 – 1918) was an Italian Cabinetmaker, and the Father of Piero Zen.
Biography
From 1880, Zen directed the most crucial furniture workshop in Milan. He was active in the stile floreale, continued after the 1902 Turin ‘Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte Decorativa Moderna’ to be known for his Art Nouveau and Symbolist motifs. He was not a designer himself but instead a factory owner and manager. From 1898, his firm was associated with Haas of Vienna, whose designers included Otto Eckmann.
Carlo Zen maintained prominence by manufacturing furniture based on art nouveau and symbolist motifs that appealed primarily to feminine tastes. Using inlays of mother-of-pearl, his artisans’ elegant, asymmetrical patterns became more geometric towards 1910, showing the simplification typical of German and Austrian forms.
Zen, who understood how foreign designs could influence and nurture the Stile Floreale, remained one of the more skilful Italian manufacturers of the twentieth century.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
Weisberg, G. P. (1988). Stile Floreal: the cult of nature in Italian design. United States: Wolfsonian Foundation.
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