Francis Sultana and Roberto Ruspoli’s Greco-Roman-inspired furniture feels fresh and contemporary

Interior designer Francis Sultana and artist Roberto Ruspoli have joined forces to create a new capsule collection, ‘Villa Giulia’. Presented by London’s David Gill Gallery (where Sultana is CEO), the exhibition will run from 14 November to 22 December 2025, and is inspired by the spirit of the Mediterranean. The project marks a continuation of the creative partnership between Sultana and Ruspoli, which began when the designer commissioned the artist to paint whimsical figurative frescoes for the vaulted foyer of Hotel La Palma in Capri – a historic property that Sultana reimagined in 2023.

‘Villa Giulia’ features a captivating mix of furniture and accessories designed by Sultana and painted by Ruspoli. The collection includes side tables, a coffee table, guéridon tables, a series of mirrors, and several box designs crafted from oak and vellum with bronze detailing. Each piece draws inspiration from the elegance of the Mediterranean and the refined geometry of modernist villa interiors. The pair were particularly influenced by the work of French artist, writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau – notably his decoration of Villa Santo Sospir on the French Riviera – as well as Pablo Picasso’s murals at the Château de Castille in Provence and Henri Matisse’s drawings on the walls of his studio near Nice.

Each object in the collection features graceful, fluid inlaid drawings of Ruspoli’s distinctive silhouettes of young men and androgynous figures, inspired by Ancient Greece and Rome. The artist’s work merges the classical fresco traditions with minimalist, gestural line work to evoke timeless human and mythological forms. In ‘Villa Giulia’, these inlays appear in a palette of Greco-Roman-inspired hues – azure blue, turquoise and oxblood. ‘For this collaboration, I have inspired myself from the collection of Etruscan engraved mirrors of the archeological museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, interpreting them with a modern twist,’ says Ruspoli.

As for Sultana, he ‘[wanted] to create a collection that really encapsulated that sense of magic that Roberto captured for [him] at Hotel La Palma’. ‘His drawings are so timeless, with an innate sense of romance and whimsy that I so love,' says the designer. 'I wanted to create a capsule collection of furniture and accessories that meant that everyone could have a little piece of Mediterranean magic in their homes, wherever they are in the world.’