2008. Giocondo on Exibition
"Torrini Giocondo (1827-1896): President Grant,
the White House and the rediscovered jewellery set"
The last meeting of 2008 with the exhibition "A Work, a History" will run until December 2, 2008 and will star a piece of jewellery unique for historical context and international success.
The artist who gave birth to the jewel was Giocondo Torrini, nineteenth-century Florentine mosaicist and goldsmith, that his workshop on New Lungarno in Florence, was able to 'conquer' nothing less than the presidential chair of the White House, demonstrating an insight skill, a trading initiative really extraordinary for its time.
The title of the exhibition focuses precisely on a jewellery set made in 1876 and able to 'cross' the Ocean' on the occasion of Universal Exposition in Philadelphia, celebrating the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence. Found recently in the American art market with its original box, this jewellery set floral theme - made in hard stone and gold mount in the neoclassical style, consisting of pendants, earrings and with one of the two buttons to embellish clothing. Was commissioned to Giocondo Torrini by the then U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia, who remained enraptured in front of the refined art, and on which in Italy at that time, it seemed he had no competitors.