Leonardo da Vinci handbag sketch made reality
Italian fashion house Gherardini has created a calfskin leather handbag based on a design by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Fragmented drawings by the artist were reassembled by scholars and provided inspiration for the bag, named Pretiosa, Italian for “precious”.
The sketch was first discovered by Leonardo da Vinci scholar Carlo Pedretti in 1978 among tens of thousands of the inventor’s drawings, but faded into obscurity. Art historian Alessandro Vessozi, director of the Museo Ideale in the artist’s birthplace Vinci, reassembled the drawing with fellow expert Agnese Sabato.
Mr Vessozi said: “Leonardo designed several fashion accessories, but this bag is pretty unique. It blends beauty and functionality in a very harmonious way. The Pretiosa is the expression of modern technique and aesthetics and, at the same time, embodies a provocative idea conceived together with the Leonardo da Vinci Ideal Museum.”
The handmade calfskin bag designed by Carla Braccialini was unveiled at the Pitti W fashion show in Florence last week. Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing is thought to have been sketched at the end of the 15th century in 1497 when the artist was painting the tapestries in the Last Supper.
Lorenzo Braccialini, marketing director of Braccialini, Gherardini’s holding company, said: “It’s a very chic handbag. It is also very functional and capable. Indeed, it embodies the best Florentine tradition of leather work.”
Just 99 of the bags have been made.
