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Poetic insight infuses this souvenir of Giorgio Armani woven by Giovanni Mariotti a month after the great designer’s passing.
A touching article by Giovanni Mariotti, written in a single burst without punctuation, offering us a portrait of the Macchiaiolo painter Silvestro Lega.
One of the most charming landscapes of the Italian summer, the beaches of Versilia, is recounted through the refined paintings of Moses Levy.
The Etruscan studio in the royal Savoy palace of Racconigi, a noteworthy instance of a pseudo-antiquarian capriccio.
The intriguing and little known youthful works of the artist Élisabeth Chaplin, painted in the Florentine countryside.
Two works by Andrew Wyeth spark a poetic reflection on the sense of sight and on the sentimental and philosophical aspects of painting.
This time, in his feature on the shapes of art, Mariotti reflects on the spiral, which takes centre stage in a work by Léon Spilliaert.
In Renaissance Florence it was customary to bring refreshments to new mothers on artistically decorated trays.
Roger Caillois’s collection of stones and Giovanni Pratesi’s collection of Arno river rocks and pebbles.
The wooden St Rocco from the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, much admired by Giorgio Vasari, was almost taken to Germany during World War II.
A learned and witty article describes the many self-portraits painted by Sofonisba Anguissola, often with self-promotional intent.
Magnificent tables of marble and inlaid stones made in Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Sand sculptures abandoned to desert winds, carpets made of flowers, decorative clouds and other examples of ephemeral art.
An apocryphal version of the Flight into Egypt by French illustrator Luc-Olivier Merson, set in the Gizah Plateau.
The entirely European phenomenon of the Grand Tour, illustrated with a collection of sulfur-based cameos known as “zolfi.”
Personal thoughts and profound memories reawakened by an object as simple and unassuming as a coin bank.
The author, a landscape gardener and botanical investigator of great artworks, shows us recondite vegetal details of renowned masterpieces.
The peculiar eclecticism of some eccentric villas in the Salento region of Puglia, which look like fantastical palaces belonging to an imaginary Orient.
After abdicating the throne, Queen Christina of Sweden moved to Rome, where she devoted herself fully to her great vocation as patron of the arts and collector.
The deeper and less obvious meanings of the series “Primitive Humanity,” painted by Piero di Cosimo in the Florence of the Medici.
The adventures (especially the romantic escapades) of Byron in Ravenna, illustrated with paintings inspired by the poet’s creations in those same years.
Contemporary artist Marco Barina’s assemblages are attributed, in a piece of fiction, to imaginary pre-human populations.
The voracious and well-informed career as an art collector of Cardinal Richelieu, Chief Minister of State under Louis XIII of France.
The remarkable work done by Galileo Chini to decorate the Bangkok Throne Hall.
