Traveling Through Time With Buccellati’s ‘ The Prince of Goldsmiths’ Exhibition in Venice ITALIAN
And LUXURY jewelry Maison Buccellati history might trace back to 1919 Milan, but it selected Venice —the Italian city renowned for its exquisite goldsmithing tradition — to house a major retrospective called “The Prince of Goldsmiths: Buccellati Rediscove
through June 18 on Venice’s
Giudecca Gi d Il Island, d the h show h h honors Buccellati’s illustrious 100-plus year history, interweaving the family members’ varied gold and silver creations with the themes and masterpieces of classical
Italian art, enlivened with modern video installations. The exhibition coincides with the contemporary Venice Art Biennale, underscoring the ability of the maison’s rich, artistic tradition to unite time through past, present and future.
“The classics offer the pleasure of rediscovery, evoking timeless worlds of elegance, art and nature. Reinterpreting them means reinterpreting millennial traditions and forms with an always up-to-date look,” said Andrea Buccellati, creative director and honorary president of the maison. “This is the aim of the exhibition, which is an even more precious moment to us, as it is hosted in Venice. The classics are a bridge thrown between past and future, evidence of an original style to be perpetuated in the times to come.”
Presented in four rooms, the jewelry and silverware exhibition takes visitors on a multigenerational journey of Buccellati elegance and craftsmanship, with each space offering a unique perspective on the maison’s creative heritage.
The first room, The Buccellati Generations, takes visitors through Buccellati with four butterflyshaped brooches designed by the generations. The butterfly has always been a great inspiration for the Buccellati legacy, symbolizing rebirth, grace, lightness and change, and these four brooches represent the maison’s deep-rooted craftsmanship and evolving jewelry techniques used for over a century.
The first butterfly was designed by Mario, the founder; the second by Gianmaria, one of his sons; the third by Andrea, Gianmaria’s son.
The fourth, the “Buccellati Venezia Butterfly,” was created exclusively for this exhibition by Andrea Buccellati in collaboration with his daughter Lucrezia. This final butterfly incorporates all the maison’s techniques, from openwork to tulle. The brooch’s body is formed by two teardrop diamonds (one weighing 8.51 carats, D color and IF clarity, the other weighing 5.10 carats, also D color, and VVS1 clarity. Fifty navettecut diamonds and 270 round brilliant-cut diamonds embellish the butterfly’s wings, add a precious touch and charm.
The second room, Manmade Wonders, reveals precious silver and gold creations that encapsulate the distinctive elegance of the 20th century. Here, small boxes, smoking accessories and handbags emphasize the maison’s craftsmanship. Inspired by the Italian arts, Renaissance architectural elements and brocaded fabrics, both Mario and Gianmaria Buccellati created these small masterpieces with meticulous skill and patience. These “gallantries” spread from Italy to all European courts from the 18th century onward, both adorning homes and being gifted to close friends.
The third room, Natural Wonders, focuses exclusively on the silver masterpieces characteristic of the Buccellati Style, referred to as Arte Sottile, a Renaissance term for the art of masterfully working silver. Here, nature’s beauty was the muse, and Buccellati artisans meticulously crafted masterpieces celebrating fauna and flora — leaves, buds, shells and luxuriant creatures from crustaceans to furry animals. The masters brought these characters to life in silver, using ancient techniques such as embossing and chiseling, even capturing fur and feathers in astoundingly lifelike detail. The artisans also incorporated semiprecious stones with materials such as bamboo, horn, porcelain and Murano glass to forge sculptural forms of extraordinary grace.
The fourth and final room, The Gallery of the Icons, uses a long, endless white gallery setting to illustrate how Buccellati’s silver- and goldsmithing is truly an art form. Adorned with a series of neoclassical-style columns arranged facing, parallel rows, the set-up creates an infinitely multiplying visual effect with skillfully placed mirrors.
For a touch of the surreal, Buccellati creations “float” at eye level on transparent displays, offering an eye-level and privileged glimpse into the family’s iconic creations.
The room’s four central columns display the four main distinctive techniques of the maison — tulle, lace, engraving and enchainment. Such technical mastery “animates” the gold’s surface, evoking textures of the finest fabrics, such as lace, tulle and brocade.
“The icons of Buccellati’s goldsmith’s production perfectly match the symbols of our artistic heritage, such as Cupid and Psyche,” said Marco Balich, chairman of Balich Wonder Studio, which created and staged the installation project. “The exhibition celebrates — in a timeless city — the beauty of the maison’s creations and the classical arts through a contemporary reading and emotional direction, capable of generating wonder.”
The Maison Buccellati is owned by Richemont today, but the
REINTERPRETING [THE CLASSICS] MEANS REINTERPRETING MILLENNIAL TRADITIONS AND FORMS WITH AN ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE LOOK.” — Andrea Buccellati, creative director and honorary president of the maison.
Buccellati family maintains an important managerial presence that retains its rich history. In fact, the shapes of even the most modern collections are inspired by the historical archive drawings and by the very first creations of the founder, Mario Buccellati.
“Without the past there is no future,” said Alba Cappellieri, professor of jewelry design at Milan Polytechnic, which curated the jewelry and silverware selection. “This exhibition is a marvelous time machine that takes us on a journey from the beginning of the 20th century, when Mario created sublime jewelry pieces for Gabriele d’Annunzio and his muses, to the 1970s, when Gianmaria magnified the goldsmithing techniques of the Renaissance with the colors of his sumptuous cocktail jewelry…and up to present times, which Andrea interprets with the contemporary elegance of his cuff bracelets and soft sets.”