ROME — Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry sometimes is inspired by “imaginary places or fairy tales,” but for its latest high jewelry collection unveiled on Wednesday evening in Rome, it was more about “real journeys through history and art,” said president and chief executive officer Nicolas Bos.

Specifically, the Grand Tour, which provides the name to the gathering and best embodies the cultural experience popular within the 18th and nineteenth century.

The Grand Tour was “a way for quite a lot of young people, artists and creators to coach themselves to find art and culture traveling from London, Paris or Germany across Europe, and Italy was after all a essential destination,” Bos explained.

Van Cleef & Arpels staged the presentation at Rome’s Villa Medici, the Academy of France within the Italian capital, which was at the guts of the Grand Tour.

Throughout the estate and the terrace overlooking town, with the assistance of actors, the corporate offered postcards of among the essential cities considered a Tour Must-see: a serenade in Neapolitan to a model wearing a parure on one end, musicians under a Wedgwood-like pavilion, or the normal Harlequin character in Venice jesting in one other corner of the garden. More surprises were in store, as Pulcinellas on stilts and a number of other other masked characters danced across the garden while horses pulled a golden chariot or raced through the esplanade. After a fashion show during dinner, the evening ended with colourful hot air balloons floating within the sky and an opera singer performing while suspended mid-air.

Villa Medici’s “cultural inspiration and celebration of beauty continues today; it’s not only a spot of implausible memories of the past and of Italian Renaissance,” Bos said.

On display was a group of around 70 beautiful and artistic high jewelry pieces.

“The gathering is multidimensional. It blends the traditions of bijou and ornamental arts — such objects were brought back as souvenirs from the Grand Tour — with the thought of once more discovering and mixing periods and cultures,” Bos said. The corporate selected cities that were renown stops historically, taking inspiration from antique jewelry — Roman, Etruscan, Medieval or Renaissance — “marrying it with our own heritage, style and craftsmanship.”

4 bracelets faithfully reproduced views of Venice, Rome, Florence and Naples, Italy, their bridges, domes and skylines, just like antique micro-mosaics, but Bos underscored the intent was “to keep away from stereotyped postcard images.” Entirely flexible, they were inspired by the bandeaux bracelets typical of the Nineteen Twenties. “Inspiration may be very essential, like with art and poetry, it is essential…what we’re in search of is to search out the best balance between inspiration and references, without being too obvious or literal.”

Necklaces and bracelets formed landscapes and motifs, including snow-peaked mountains and brooches reproducing Alpine edelweiss. Worked three-dimensionally, sculptural clips comprised vintage cameos. Earrings surprised as Baroque girandoles.

“Jewelry is one in every of the oldest expressions of art, and it’s a universal expression across cultures. It was a bit forgotten, however it has come back, there may be a pleasant exposure and also you see more of it in museums and initiatives,” said Bos, who has for years organized exhibitions world wide for the brand and continues to work on several projects to “internationally develop the culture of bijou,” he said. These include, for instance, the present “Garden of Green” exhibit in Latest York on the American Museum of National History, and the support of the School of Jewelry Arts’ exhibition “A Latest Art, Metamorphoses of Jewelry, 1880-1914” in Paris.

Asked concerning the arrival on the scene of latest brands introducing high jewelry, Bos believes they can assist “introduce the category and begin the journey.” He sees many returning and dependable Van Cleef & Arpels clients across generations, constructing “an actual strong connection,” although he realizes that “some collectors also buy different iconic pieces from other brands, similarly to art collectors.”

The Piazza Divina necklace was a marvel, reflecting the Baroque architecture of Rome’s Saint Peter’s Square designed by Bernini — a primary trapezoidal area that offers approach to a second one with an elliptical shape. Rings of white gold set with diamonds, studded with emeralds and sapphires, formed the choker, punctuated by 14 pendeloques in rose gold and diamonds, alternating with motifs that every combined a pear-shaped diamond and an emerald. At the middle of the necklace, a medallion showcased an oval-cut Ethiopian emerald weighing 13.09 carats, surrounded by round diamonds.

Inspired by the London stop, and Canova’s statue at Chatsworth House, the Dea Eterna brooch revealed the silhouette of the goddess Hebe, perched on a rock of lapis lazuli pouring ambrosia from a distinct segment product of superposed strips of polished or textured gold and marquise-cut diamonds, which suggest the asperities of rock. The three-dimensional elements included pink sapphire, lapis lazuli and a cultured pearl — a type of tableau, evoking the substitute waterfall installed within the gardens of the stately home, crowned by a chic pavilion in the shape of a temple.

Naples inspired the Ninfe necklace, depicting a floral crown, similar to those who might be seen within the mosaics of the ruined Nymphaeum in Herculaneum, a monument dedicated to the nymphs. Made from links of gadrooned rose gold or diamonds and pink sapphires, they were joined on the neck to form a three-dimensional knot. A composition of leaves in gadrooned rose gold, white gold and diamonds, or red and pink “angel-skin” coral surrounded three vividly coloured gems. A pink cushion-cut rubellite weighing 24.02 carats was accentuated by two oval-cut rubellites weighing 12.44 and 11.52 carats of particularly even color. Rubies, pink sapphires and spessartite garnets were strewn across the necklace, fastidiously articulated for comfort, while the information of the leaves on the central motif were softened and barely curved.