We know Leonardo da Vinci as an artist, a scientist, a writer, an engineer, an inventor, and even a musician. So perhaps it’s not surprising that historians have just discovered he was also a handbag designer.
Academics have put together fragments of drawings which make up a purse da Vinci designed in around 1497.
Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of the Museo Ideale in da Vinci’s hometown of Vinci, explained that the pioneer created several fashion accessories, but the purse dubbed the Pretiosa, is something special.
“It blends beauty and functionality in a very harmonious way,” he told Discovery News.
Its shape mimics the lectern in his painting The Annunciation, and it’s decorated with swirling spirals, flowers, and decorative scrolls. It’s believed other drawings of the Pretiosa existed, but sadly they’ve been lost over time.
Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches have been brought to life by Italian fashion house Gherardini. The label crafted a leather version which Lorenzo Braccialini, the marketing director of Gherardini’s holding company Braccialini, says is “very modern in its vintage concept.” He also praised the purse’s practicality.
He might have lived centuries ago, but it seems that da Vinci’s designs could easily fit in to the modern fashion landscape. Historian Paolo Giovio explained that the innovator “strongly disapproved conformism and condemned redundancy and excess of ornamentation.” It seems a few contemporary designers good learn a few lessons from him!
Gherardini’s representation of da Vinci’s sketches will be presented at the Pitti fashion show in Florence next Tuesday. It will then appear at an Academy of the Arts of Drawing exhibition alongside other da Vinci designs including a mechanical drum, a Medicean ring, a lens spectacle, and a clock.
