[FONT="]Now it's the da Vinci handbag: Italian fashion house to launch calfskin handbag... designed by Renaissance genius[/FONT]
[FONT="]dailymail.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT="]Painter, scientist and inventor, he was the ultimate Renaissance man. [/FONT]
[FONT="]He deployed his genius across a wide range of subjects from anatomy and biology to mechanics and hydraulics.[/FONT]
[FONT="]As an engineer, he conceived ideas vastly ahead of his time, conceptually inventing the helicopter, the submarine and the parachute.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But it seems Leonardo da Vinci, the man who gave us the Mona Lisa, can also be credited with another creation – the designer handbag.[/FONT]
[FONT="]It is believed he drew his sketch of an ornate leather accessory in 1497 while he was painting The Last Supper.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now a luxury Italian brand has decided to manufacture a bag based on Leonardo's design – more than five centuries after his death.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Scholars reconstructed fragmented drawings of the bag. Their work was then seized upon by Florence fashion house Gherardini, which made a prototype of the bag.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The finished product, named 'Pretiosa' which means 'precious', is going on sale this year. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Art historian Alessandro Vessozi, director of the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's birthplace, helped to reassemble the drawing. He said: 'Leonardo designed several fashion accessories, but this bag is pretty unique.[/FONT]
[FONT="]'It blends beauty and functionality in a very harmonious way.[/FONT]
[FONT="]'The Pretiosa is the expression of modern technique and aesthetics and, at the same time, embodies a provocative idea conceived together with the Leonardo da Vinci Ideal Museum.'[/FONT]
[FONT="]The sketch was first discovered by Leonardo scholar Carlo Pedretti in 1978 among tens of thousands of the inventor's drawings, but it failed to attract much attention at the time.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The refined handmade bag, designed by Carla Braccialini based on the Leonardo original, is made of calfskin. It was unveiled at the Pitti W fashion show in Florence by the Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, who appeared in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Lorenzo Braccialini, marketing director of Braccialini, Gherardini holding company, said yesterday: 'It's a very chic handbag. It is also very functional and capable. It embodies the best Florentine tradition of leather work.'[/FONT]
[FONT="]Only 99 of the bags have been made – and will go on sale at the beginning of March. [/FONT]
[FONT="]The price has not yet been set. Given its exclusivity, it is likely to retail for many thousands of pounds.[/FONT]
[FONT="]dailymail.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT="]Painter, scientist and inventor, he was the ultimate Renaissance man. [/FONT]
[FONT="]He deployed his genius across a wide range of subjects from anatomy and biology to mechanics and hydraulics.[/FONT]
[FONT="]As an engineer, he conceived ideas vastly ahead of his time, conceptually inventing the helicopter, the submarine and the parachute.[/FONT]
[FONT="]But it seems Leonardo da Vinci, the man who gave us the Mona Lisa, can also be credited with another creation – the designer handbag.[/FONT]
[FONT="]It is believed he drew his sketch of an ornate leather accessory in 1497 while he was painting The Last Supper.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now a luxury Italian brand has decided to manufacture a bag based on Leonardo's design – more than five centuries after his death.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Scholars reconstructed fragmented drawings of the bag. Their work was then seized upon by Florence fashion house Gherardini, which made a prototype of the bag.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The finished product, named 'Pretiosa' which means 'precious', is going on sale this year. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Art historian Alessandro Vessozi, director of the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's birthplace, helped to reassemble the drawing. He said: 'Leonardo designed several fashion accessories, but this bag is pretty unique.[/FONT]
[FONT="]'It blends beauty and functionality in a very harmonious way.[/FONT]
[FONT="]'The Pretiosa is the expression of modern technique and aesthetics and, at the same time, embodies a provocative idea conceived together with the Leonardo da Vinci Ideal Museum.'[/FONT]
[FONT="]The sketch was first discovered by Leonardo scholar Carlo Pedretti in 1978 among tens of thousands of the inventor's drawings, but it failed to attract much attention at the time.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The refined handmade bag, designed by Carla Braccialini based on the Leonardo original, is made of calfskin. It was unveiled at the Pitti W fashion show in Florence by the Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta, who appeared in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Lorenzo Braccialini, marketing director of Braccialini, Gherardini holding company, said yesterday: 'It's a very chic handbag. It is also very functional and capable. It embodies the best Florentine tradition of leather work.'[/FONT]
[FONT="]Only 99 of the bags have been made – and will go on sale at the beginning of March. [/FONT]
[FONT="]The price has not yet been set. Given its exclusivity, it is likely to retail for many thousands of pounds.[/FONT]
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