Isotta Gioielli is constantly searching for new expressive values for its jewels. A rare and precious blue stone, which managed to enclose the sea and the starry vault of a night sky, caught my attention while I was designing my jewels, arousing lively emotions and deep feelings.
In fact, the union between the Sky, which has a symbolic masculine value, representing power and ambition, and the Sea, which is feminine and represents instinct and the Unknown, has stimulated new creative energies.
A rare and precious blue stone was discovered in the Far East in the mountains of Badakhshan. It is mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 24:10) and in Sumerian literature, particularly in the poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. Lapis Lazuli was a symbol of wealth, along with gold, silver and other precious metals.
Due to its rarity, the blue stone has been used to create works of great artistic value and to express princely splendor.
The colour blue established itself, towards the end of the Middle Ages, as the most beautiful and noble of the colours symbolising royal dignity; it was used to paint the cloaks of the Madonna and the kings of France.
Imported into Europe in large quantities by Venetian merchants, lapis lazuli was known as “ ultramarinum ”, meaning coming from “beyond the sea”, hence the name overseas. Giotto’s blue skies are famous in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi and the famous cycle of frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
Ultramarine blue, praised as a “noble, beautiful, most perfect colour beyond all colours” by Cennino Cennini, Giotto's heir, in his treatise, where he describes in detail the way to obtain the precious pigment by grinding stone.
During the Renaissance, the preciousness of the material was particularly appreciated by the Medici family, whose cups, vases and amphorae, inlaid furniture and table tops are still admired today throughout the world.
In 1956 the French artist Yves Klein he developed a particular, very deep blue, using a synthetic ultramarine pigment mixed with an industrial resin. This color, an almost perfect reminder of the lapis lazuli used to paint the cloaks of the Madonnas of the Renaissance, would become famous under the name of International Klein Blue («IKB»). Klein's blue was supposed to represent the immaterial, the pure form of space, and therefore blue was infinite like the sky.
For last summer, I made a necklace combining a precious lapis lazuli, with a beautiful blue color, with the white of pearls and the bright red of Mediterranean coral; soon, I will create one inspired by the sky.
There are many of you who appreciate my creations and for this I thank you!
