Like a Renaissance prince, d’Annunzio wanted the citadel he was about to erect, the Vittoriale degli Italiani – his last masterpiece of living stone – crowded with workshops, each with a skilled craftsman ready to fulfil his every wish. “And to say that I wish to open a small goldsmith’s workshop at the Vittoriale!” he wrote in 1923 to Mario Buccellati, the goldsmith that d’Annunzio had met in Milan the year before and whom d’Annunzio immediately dubbed “Mastro Paragon Coppella”, naming him the Vittoriale’s official goldsmith.
Mario Buccellati (1891-1965) started-out as a professional jeweller in 1919, immediately achieving great success: his goldsmith’s workshop in Milan was crowded with members of the aristocracy and international high society, and it was therefore to this fashionable craftsman that d’Annunzio entrusted the production of the jewellery that he designed with great skill and knowledge of goldsmithing techniques, and of the precious stones to adorn the women who flocked to the Vittoriale. Their relationship lasted 15 years, until the Poet’s death on 1st March 1938.
Their vast correspondence bears witness not only to a relationship of great esteem and friendship, but also to the skill with which the Poet-Technician influenced Buccellati’s passions, particularly in his choices – with the inexhaustible panism evident in his poetic production – of plants, flowers and animals as models for the jewellery that would direct Buccellati’s aesthetic choices and make his fortune as a goldsmith.
The jewellery boxes from the Santomo collection on show, all destined for Letizia de Felici, the “Mèlitta” who was his lover from 1922 to 1935, define d’Annunzio’s relationship not only with the contents of the top goldsmith’s work but also with their container. Immediately, from at least 1924, D’Annunzio attests to using the cases as carriers of messages, thus eternalising the object with the most precious stone: his word.
1. Cup made by Buccellati for Gabriele d’Annunzio.
2. Necklace and bracelet made by Buccellati.
3. Silver box with d’Annunzio’s motto”I have what I have given”.
4. The exterior of the Milan headquarters of Buccellati jewellers.