Le Volte Celesti - Set of Six Dinner Plates

The Le Volte Celesti collection was born from the meeting of Milan’s architectural heritage and the vision of Italian designer Vito Nesta. While exploring the archives of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo—the institution responsible for the construction and preservation of Milan Cathedral for centuries—Nesta discovered the drawings of engineer and architect Paolo Cesa Bianchi.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Cesa Bianchi conceived a project that never moved beyond the drawing board: transforming the cathedral’s vaulted ceilings into a deep blue sky scattered with golden stars, symbolically bringing the celestial vault into the heart of the building.

Rather than recreating this unrealized vision, Vito Nesta chose to reinterpret it through a contemporary lens.

The historical drawings become a graphic language in which Gothic architectural lines, fresco motifs, and the soaring perspectives of the cathedral’s nave are reimagined as geometric compositions that, depending on the piece, recall either a kaleidoscope or a rose window.

Porcelain becomes the medium for a dialogue between memory, architecture, and contemporary design.

Made in Italy, this set includes six 28 cm porcelain dinner plates. Each plate features a distinct interpretation of Vito Nesta’s decorative compositions, extending the graphic universe of Le Volte Celesti to the dining table.

With Le Volte Celesti, Vito Nesta does not reproduce the archives of Milan Cathedral. Instead, he gives new life to an architectural vision that was never realized in its original form.

The collection offers a contemporary expression of a forgotten project, illustrating how design can also serve as a way of preserving and reinterpreting cultural heritage.