LEONARDO AND THE BATTILORO – XXV EDITION CRAFTS AND PALACE

On the occasion of the XXV edition of Artigianato e Palazzo, Giusto Manetti Battiloro showcases the wonder of gold, the talent of the artisans who work it and the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, whose five hundredth anniversary of his death is celebrated this year. Once Events, an event organization in Florence, handled the artistic direction and realization of the exhibition for the company.

The exhibition
The goldsmith’s art, noble, ancient and well documented already in ancient Egypt and Greco-Roman civilizations, reached its greatest importance in Renaissance Florence. Based on the drawings of the Codex Atlanticus, the Manetti family, which for fifteen generations has held high the name of Florence and its artisans throughout the world, wanted to pay homage to the intuition of the Master Leonardo da Vinci by reconstructing his famous machine: an engineering masterpiece mechanics designed for the production of embossed sheets used both for gold leaf and for medals and coins.

The exhibition, which was the main exhibition of this edition of Artigianato e Palazzo, showed the general public the secrets and wonders of a profession that has produced beauty for thousands of years. On stage, therefore, the complex production process which in ten hours of work leads the gold (melted at over 1000 degrees) to progressively thin until it becomes thin and light as a feather, as well as craftsmen intent on gilding wood and stucco, architectural elements and furnishings.

Giusto Manetti produces in Florence the gold leaf used in the most prestigious buildings in the world, from Versailles to the Hermitage Museum; from the Kremlin to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; from the Rockefeller Building to the Prada Foundation.