The Italian playwright and politician Gabriele d’Annunzio entered a Milan store in 1922, intrigued by intricate sketches displayed within the window.
Inside, he found Mario Buccellati and a goldsmithing experience rooted within the traditions of the Italian Renaissance. Their encounter sparked a lifelong friendship and patronage, finally shaping the fortunes of the younger craftsman and serving to to propel the title Buccellati into the world of the aristocrats and royalty of the time.
“The Prince of Goldsmiths, Rediscovering the Classics,” an exhibition that runs via June 18 on Giudecca, a Venetian island, traces the historical past of the Buccellati jewellery home based in 1919 and pays particular tribute to the boys’s relationship.
“Once we determined to current this exhibition, the title got here virtually spontaneously,” Gianluca Brozzetti, the chief vp of Buccellati, wrote in an e-mail. “The ‘Prince of Goldsmiths’ was how Gabriele d’Annunzio outlined Mario Buccellati, testifying to his experience in creating timeless masterpieces.”
That includes a collection of 230 of the jewellery home’s most spectacular creations — 135 items of bijou and 95 silver works — the present in Oficine 800, an exhibition house, is reached through a brief vaporetto experience from Piazza San Marco within the coronary heart of this northern Italian metropolis.
“Venice has at all times been one of the vital celebrated symbols of goldsmithing and jewellery traditions, so it was the perfect setting to host a retrospective to retrace the historical past of Buccellati,” Mr. Brozzetti wrote.
Buccellati was a family-owned enterprise for a lot of its historical past, and the present traces the contribution of 4 generations, beginning with Mario, who based the corporate when he was 28; then considered one of his 5 sons, Gianmaria; then Gianmaria’s second son, Andrea; then Andrea’s daughter, Lucrezia, who joined the Milan-based enterprise in 2011.
In 2019, the posh group Richemont assumed full possession of the corporate, succeeding the Shanghai-based funding firm, Gansu Gangtai Holding Group, to which the household had ceded a majority stake in 2017.
Mario Buccellati’s fashion was outlined by honeycomb goldwork and delicate filigree detailing. Skinny wires of treasured steel had been twisted and soldered collectively, incorporating textured finishes and exact strategies of engraving, etching and granulation, usually enhanced with diamonds, baroque pearls or extraordinary coloured stones. All stay signature components of the Buccellati fashion.
“We wish guests to go away with an understanding of how Buccellati’s fashion has advanced, at all times sustaining a timeless attract, however by no means forgetting its historic roots,” Andrea Buccellati, the jeweler’s inventive director, wrote in an e-mail.
Divided into 4 sections, the exhibition begins with “The Buccellati Generations,” that includes 4 butterfly brooches demonstrating the evolution of the motif.
The subsequent part is devoted to small, private objects, like delicately engraved cigarette instances, powder bins or night luggage with engraved or gem-set steel {hardware}. Then comes a room full of silver housewares impressed by creatures of the land and sea.
Masterworks of Buccellati jewellery are saved for final, showcasing a variety of signature creations just like the Everlasting ring, a traditional of the home, and engraved gold and silver cuff bracelets. It additionally contains one-of-a-kind items, like the fragile openwork white and yellow gold necklace chosen for the present’s promoting poster.
Buccellati teamed with Balich Surprise Studio, additionally of Milan, to create an immersive setting for the present. Flooring-to-ceiling animations are projected on partitions. Dynamic pictures of nature, classical artwork, structure and sculpture seem on interactive showcases — all key sources of inspiration for Buccellati — synchronized to the “Spring” concerto from Vivaldi’s “4 Seasons.”
“For the jewellery, we created classical columns aligned in an extended gallery with mirrors at every finish to create an phantasm of infinity,” Claudio Sbragion, the inventive director of Balich Surprise Studio, mentioned on the opening of the present. “It’s a temple to the artwork of Buccellati, suspended between previous and future.”
