In 1935 Guido Donegani commissioned Gio Ponti to build the new headquarters for Montecatini, a company that manufactured aluminum and marble. Built between 1936 and 1938, the Rationalist structure was a testament to international modernist ideology at a time during which Italy endured sanctions on foreign trade and a related return to traditionalist values. As described in the catalogue for the exhibition "Italian Design Beyond the Crisis: Autarky, Austerity, Autonomy," the building became “a promotional manifesto intended to celebrate Italian superiority…”

Like many of Palazzo Montecatini’s other furnishings and functional elements, the present pair of wall lights are made of "anticorodal" aluminum. Their austere form resembles a neoclassical interpretation of the wall lights that Le Corbusier used throughout his career from the 1930s onward. Similarly, they made up part of a thoroughly unified scheme of interior furnishings and lighting that were manufactured in a standardized modern manner. Placed throughout the hallways at regular intervals, they became a functional element alongside doors, interior windows and air vents.