From Pop Art to the art of ancient Venice: myths and jewels of Attilio Codognato ♦
He was friends with Andy Warhol, which he attended for a long time in New York, and of Roy Lichtenstein. Of the two standard bearers of Pop Art, but not only them, he papered his house in Venice. Yet it is from the cultural roots of the most beautiful lagoon city in the world that Attilio Codognato, who passed away in November 2023, drew inspiration for his jewels. Or, rather, this is what the jewelery shop in Piazza San Marco does, opened by his grandfather, Simeone Codognato in 1866, which continues to offer small glimpses of the art of the sixteenth and seventeenth century Venice, but in miniature.
Two, in particular, forms of jewelry that Codognato did become icons: the «moretto», traditional figure, that recurs in the paintings of the Venetian Renaissance, and the skull of “memento mori”, which in the past was a warning to ponder: remember that you have to die. Although the subject is macabre, the craftsmanship, luxury, artistic interpretation and transposition in the form of jewelry, they have been successful. And thanks to its attachment to tradition the now jewelry is part of the Venetian landscape. In short, a mix of gold, archeology, passion for art are the elements of the recipe of what is one of the oldest Italian jewelers. Rudy Serra
