Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina designed Tolomeo for Artemide in 1986. De Lucchi had come out of the Memphis group; Fassina worked inside Artemide on the engineering of lamps. The combination shows.
Tolomeo hides its mechanism in plain sight. The arm is balanced by cables and springs housed inside the tubing, so the joint has no visible knuckle. The lamp can be moved with one finger and left exactly where it is put.
One idea, many sizes
The family grew into one of the largest in modern lighting — desk, floor, wall, clamp, suspension, micro and mega versions. It is in the permanent collections of MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In our collection you will find the Mini on a desk, the Mega as a floor and wall lamp, the Basculante as a two-arm suspension, and the Decentrata for hanging a fixture off-centre from its own ceiling point. Same joint, same one-finger movement, different rooms.
Artemide | Tolomeo Basculante Suspension 2 arms
Artemide | Tolomeo Micro Faretto Wall Lighting
Artemide | Tolomeo Mega LED Wall Lamp
Artemide | Tolomeo Decentrata Suspension