The Story of Leonardo da Vinci’s Handbag

START
body

Up until recently, the idea of a “da Vinci handbag” conjured little more than the nylon Mona Lisa-printed variety adorning kiosks outside the Louvre. That, or perhaps the exponentially pricier Jeff Koons iteration, part of the artist’s 2017 Masters collaboration with Louis Vuitton. But there was in fact designer precedent.

In 2008, the Italian fashion house Gherardini invited a series of artists and designers to reinterpret da Vinci’s circa-1503 masterpiece, printing it across a series of limited-edition handbags for an event entitled “Re-Thinking Mona Lisa.” Proceeds from sales of the bags funded local artistic restoration, which makes sense when one considers the house’s namesake: Lisa Gherardini. Widely believed to be that Lisa, the Florentine noblewoman, aka La Gioconda, was married to Francesco del Giocondo, the man many historians cite as responsible for the painting’s original commission.

It was likely while da Vinci worked on his other most well-known painting, The Last Supper, that he created a series of sketches first sourced by scholar Carlo Pedretti in 1978. The archetypal Renaissance Man, da Vinci was not only a painter, but an architect, inventor, and student of science. And, as Pedretti discovered to little fanfare at the time, da Vinci was also known to sketch and design ornate leather accessories.

Approximately five centuries later, Museo Ideal director Alessandro Vessozi and fellow historian Agnese Sabato pieced together the drawings as part of a laborious reconstruction. Fittingly, the house of Gherardini was tasked with interpreting those sketches, creating a luxe, tooled calfskin handbag unveiled at Pitti in 2012. Dubbed Pretiosa, or “precious,” the bag was made in a series of 99 and featured intricate embroidery and a hand-etched brass handle.

While the price of the Pretiosa was never revealed—and their sale maybe never even made public—there’s hope for Leonardo lovers. As of this writing, Louis Vuitton x Jeff Koons handbags can still be found online starting at around ,200. More frugal types can of course hold out for the Etsy variety—made to order, available in multiple colors, and infinitely less expensive.

END

prev link: https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a27149179/leonardo-da-vinci-handbag-birthday/
createdAt:Mon, 15 Apr 2019 14:02:17 +0000
displayType:Standard Article
section:Culture