The work of the Ravenna mosaicists proceeded successfully during the 1930s with some valuable works on commission, mostly carried out by Giuseppe Salietti (1905-1988) in collaboration with great artists of the time such as Ferrazzi, Funi, Severini and Sironi.
In 1931 Salietti was chosen by Gino Severini for the decoration of the Church of St. Pierre in Fribourg, Switzerland, the beginning of an artistic partnership that would be further strengthened after the Second War.
After working with Sironi, in 1941 Salietti turned the decorative design of Achille Funi’s Golden Age into mosaic for the ceiling of the meeting hall in the Palazzo delle Colonne in Milan.
This is an ambitious work on a vast scale, as shown by the preparatory cartoons. Salietti masterfully interpreted Funi’s poetic vision: while remaining faithful to the cartoons, he used the tiles to achieve an intense chromatic result in both the background and the figures.
Salietti’s talent did not only take the form of his extraordinary conversions of other artists’ cartoons, but was also seen in his own mosaic creations, such as decorative elements in private homes, decorations of funeral chapels and works on commission for local public authorities.