The exhibition “Giulio Manfredi’s Jewels Celebrate Raphael. School of Light” at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, presents twenty-one goldsmith art creations dedicated to twenty-one characters from Raphael’s Cartone flanked by the preparatory drawings, rich in Bramante’s geometric patterns, that tell the story of the design moment.
Each of the twenty-one works is dedicated to a concept from the school of Athens: Pythagoras becomes a gold and emerald necklace with a subtle geometric texture capable of evoking the famous theorem; Alcibiades is expressed by three rings with defined shapes adorned with fluid drops of aquamarine and green tourmaline, in homage to the beauty of the leader; Heraclitus is transformed into a chrysoprase, turquoise and lapis lazuli pendant with dynamic circular and ogival shapes inspired by geometric demonstrations; Socrates is a necklace with a simple and essential appearance, but star-shaped diamonds are set on each element; the disciple dressed in white, a symbol of the ideal of kalokagathía (beauty and goodness), is represented by earrings in several variations. Then again, the Sophists, Diogenes, Zoroaster, Archimedes, etc.
Raphael’s characters become real presences in a scenic installation, spread throughout the Cardboard room. They are not sculptures, but projections of light: a true and full dematerialization of the Carton through moving beams of colored light. What the visitor will experience is an aesthetic and at the same time ecstatic experience of full integration of art with life.
«The “Cartone” inspires the human talent of those who have within them the capacity to be provoked by such haughty beauty. Contemplation of the Ambrosiana’s Raphael Cartoon, moved by a profound sense of respect, admiration and wonder, inspired Giulio Manfredi to want to set out on the bold undertaking of confronting one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance and dialoguing with ‘l’un des plus beau desseins du monde,’ as Pierre Gauthiez had expressed it», says monsignor Alberto Rocca.
«The reference to Raphael is deeply emotional: it belongs to emotion. The artist would like to give the men of today and tomorrow a hope of reconciliation: the certainty of the idea against the aridity of the world», declares Arnaldo Colasanti.
What drives Giulio Manfredi to recreate in jewelry and precious stones the dazzling secret of Raphael’s masterpiece is a gesture of admiration and love. Giulio Manfredi’s research, the awareness with which he experiments with material and form, is the trace of a precious dream, in which the legacy of Humanism is nothing but the gaze turned toward new and contemporary beauty.
The Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana chooses the work of master Giulio Manfredi because it believes that Italian genius is always a vocation for research and beauty.
«In the desire to establish an almost material continuity between past and present, this exhibition offers the possibility to understand what deep conceptual reflection is necessary for the material execution of the works and demonstrates how much the choice of metals and stones is the result of a meticulous and passionate study», concludes Msgr. Rocca.
Giulio Manfredi decided at a very young age to devote himself to jewelry making. The idea was born from a trip to Europe: a visit to the diamond cutters of Antwerp fascinated him, as did the creative relationship with precious materials and the infinite possibilities that the material could offer: «Everything starts from the need to transform the idea into matter, to shape nature»
Thus began an adventure that led him, in 1973, to establish Manfredi, a model company in which avant-garde techniques blend with the irreplaceable hand of the craftsman, in the recovery of the noblest tradition of Italian Goldsmith’s Art.
The ancient Art of jewelry finds in him an interpreter of the highest order, a refined and above all innovative creative.
His success derives from having been able to capture the classical tradition with the newest forms of expression, privileging the ideal and creative moment.
The exhibition is curated by Alberto Rocca and Arnaldo Colasanti, produced under the patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Who is Giulio Manfredi?
Giulio Manfredi gathers men and ideas, travels in search of new forms and materials, studies his audience in the streets of the world and, with a team of expert collaborators, creates his precious collections. All distinguished by the Manfredi Brand, an ambassador to the world of the unique and elegant style of his creative spirit.
They give prominence to his art the great awards and important commissions received; among them, in 1992, for the celebrations of the five-hundredth anniversary of Piero della Francesca, the invitation by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities to create 12 jewelry-sculptures for the exhibition “With the Eyes of Piero” , which was held in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo; in 1990 the commission by the State of California to create the Magic Baton Award, an annual award for the Young Musician Foundation , which is presented in Beverly Hills to great artists from the world of entertainment; in 2006 the commission by the National Center for Manzonian Studies to create seven jewel-sculptures for the exhibition “The emotion of the dream, Giulio Manfredi interprets Alessandro Manzoni,” the works are now museum holdings, on permanent display; Milan 2011, commissioned by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Giulio Manfredi creates “THE INVISIBLE GOLD. 12+1 Precious Works dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, a Collection of unique works of extraordinary beauty exhibited at the Cenacolo Vinciano and the Braidense National Library; and again in 2011, the invitation by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, to create a unique work to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the priestly ordination of His Holiness Benedict XVI: “The Seventh Splendor,” a papal in gold, silver and diamonds; in 2013, the Lombard Institute, Academy of Sciences and Letters, commissioned Giulio Manfredi to create a project that would open the doors of the Institute and reveal the invisible threads that link creativity and science, and Giulio Manfredi created a Collection of unique works that tell the story of the Institute’s 7 most representative Sciences in a path: Studia Humanitatis, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Medicine, Chemistry, Astronomy, and Energy; in 2019, Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, in celebration of Leonardo da Vinci’s 500th anniversary, presents: THE INVISIBLE GOLD, Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper 12 + 1 Precious Works, Giulio Manfredi, the Works are made of gold, silver and precious stones and dedicated to the characters of the Last Supper.
Jewels are for Giulio Manfredi, beyond their intrinsic value, artistic expressions that can tell about the person who created them and the person who wears them: Wearable Art, a tool of communication.
