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Above: Gucci bracelet.

Alessandro Michele, artistic director at Gucci, is understood for revisiting wardrobe staples with a watch for modernity, reinterpreting suiting, scarves, and the home’s signature loafers. So it’s no shock that his newest high-jewelry assortment, Hortus Deliciarum, proven this previous summer season in Rome, included items that recast the traditional artwork type of micromosaic in a completely new context.

The Vatican workshops recruited micromosaic artisans from Venice through the 18th century to avoid wasting the deteriorating frescoes of St. Peter’s Basilica; they labored to scale back mosaic tiles into tiny items to cowl the fading work. These small tiles, or tesserae, have been later deployed to create finely detailed portraits, jewellery, and furnishings. The shape’s recognition rose through the nineteenth century when it was used to depict the Everlasting Metropolis’s historic monuments, from the Pantheon to the Colosseum, and to make wearable souvenirs for vacationers on Europe’s Grand Tour.

At present, the Vatican’s mosaic studio nonetheless trains new generations of apprentices in traditional imagery, however numerous training artisans are reworking the craft into one thing extra up to date. A type of is Francesca Neri Serneri, whose firm, Le Sibille, creates micro-mosaic florals, scarabs, and playful patterns in distinctly trendy jewellery designs. “We’re evolving and innovating this historic method,” says Neri Serneri, who herself educated with a Vatican grasp. As an alternative of making flat photos, she makes use of rounded tesserae to forge three-dimensional items, like a hoop impressed by the cupolas from the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul.

The artist Maurizio Fioravanti takes a special strategy. Reasonably than exposing the intricate tilework, his elaborate designs look like painted with vivid colours. “The extra you examine the piece, the extra there’s to find,” says the Roman designer, who makes use of hundreds of tesserae in various hues to create his dynamic, diminutive masterpieces, of which he produces solely about 10 a yr for his Vamgard assortment.

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Equally, the Italian family-owned tile-maker Sicis shapes tesserae for jewellery from crushed semi-precious stones with a give attention to colour.“We create hues that may’t be realized with gems,” explains Gioia Placuzzi, the corporate’s artistic director. “Good micromosaic design is all about colour.”

However like Michele, some designers want to place their very own idiosyncratic spins on the classics. The Brazilian jeweler Silvia Furmanovich, for her half, juxtaposes classic micromosaics with daring gems, wooden, and even beetle wings. No matter your desire, one factor is for certain: This time-tested method has enduring enchantment.

This story initially appeared within the Winter 2023 difficulty of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE

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