Let me take you to one of the most magical places you can ever think of: Florence. I had the chance to live in that city while I was studying jewelry design in Italy, but if you think that I could get enough of the beauty, art and history of this city, oh boy you’re so wrong.
Let me guide you now. Imagine walking in this city of beauty and crossing Ponte Vecchio. You decide to go left this time. You admire the Arno river and get lost between the Renaissance buildings and the palazzi. After a ten-minutes walk from the bridge, you spot an old, mysterious yet very pretty building with an intriguing shop vitrine. There it is! The maestro Dari’s museum-workshop, a real cavern of Ali Baba. I knew later that during the Renaissance, this building was frequented by Michelangelo and Raphael themselves, and one of Raphael’s most famous paintings was found here (OH MY GOD, right?). Dari has been using this place, which he inherited from his family, for the last 35 years.
You enter the place and then…the magic happens.
The façade of the building
A kind of spiritual music playing in the background sets the tone. Lots of magazines are spread around the place. They are open on pages where Dari’s work is shown, or articles like mine are written. If you’re lucky enough with your timing, you will see an eccentric man sitting under a strange ball of light. That is Alessandro himself, working in his chaotic atelier. This is where he designs and executes his creations from A to Z. The mess on and around the bench will make you wonder how he even manages to. But aren’t all the geniuses messy? Oh, and by the way, the strange crystal ball of light is just another one of his masterpieces: Alessandro figured out himself how to make a little sun that gives off the same natural light as outside. Told you, a genius!
Alessandro behind his bench, with his artificial sun hanging
From the first step inside, you’ll understand that Dari’s approach to his jewels is the one of an artist to his masterpieces. The items are shown inside display boxes made of glass and many of them have a rotating mechanism. A real personal museum. Let’s take a look on the exhibited pieces now. This is not your regular jewelry. They are more like sculptures, most of them wearable, and the rest would rather sit in a collection vitrine.
Inside the shop when you enter
Dari’s one-of-a-kind pieces are real works of art – fascinating in design and execution. His work is uniquely Florentine. The man himself has always been interested in all kind of sciences, modern and ancient. In his work, he aims for combining the physical and spiritual worlds in a mystical harmony. Being also a musician, a poet, an alchemy lover and a creative soul, Dari allows us into his world through the jewelry he creates. His collections are based on his numerous interests such as music, time, alchemy, sacred art, the ancient Etruscans, architecture, nature, gothic art… For example, in his Churches collection, he recreates the gothic and classic architecture of cupolas and façades, adorned with rubies, sapphires and diamonds.
From the Churches collection
From the Gothic collection
From the Castles collection
Dari loves working on complex themes. In his “Sepulchers of the Soul” collection, he explores the relationship between man and the universe. His pieces belong to a mysterious world filled with flowers, plants and fantastic animals in a magical mixture of anatomy and architecture; a real wonderland.
The Fruit of Sin
The Flight
From the Corals collection
Dari’s techniques, entirely handmade, are based on the ancient method used by the Etruscans over 2,500 years back: using wax to obtain a mold in which the metal was poured. This is called today the lost wax technique and it is still broadly used. Among Dari’s favorite materials are gold, silver, bronze, precious stones and a particular combination that he invented himself, called “blutonio”: it is composed of several metals melted together, resulting in a color between bronze and silver.
Sepulcher of the Alchemist
House of the Angel
Sailfish
Some of Alessandro Dari’s jewels are exhibited today in important museums like Museo degli Argenti in Palazzo Pitti, Florence. Some of his works and philosophy are collected in his book “Il Misticismo nelle Forme” (The Mysticism in Forms). In 2001, his shop was given the title of Museo-Bottega (museum-boutique) by the Italian ministry of tourism. In 2003, Dari won the Perseo award that is granted to the city’s best artisan and in 2006, he was nominated Chosen Artist of the Vatican. Named honorary professor in the faculty of Architecture in the university of Florence where he taught goldsmithing for three years, he still gives courses of wax carving in the upper floor of his shop-atelier. We could not surprised, this man has so much to pass on!
Outstanding, fantastic and singular, Alessandro Dari’s jewels are particularly original and unique. They all carry a philosophy and are real pieces of art that you can either wear or display as a sculpture. And if you ever visit Florence, make sure you step by Via di San Niccolò, 115R.
For more info about the artist and his collections: www.alessandrodari.com
© 2021 Paola Sleiman. All rights reserved.
