Arcobaleno Pigmenti

Discovering a beautiful pigment shop in Venice, Italy

An entire wall of pigment in big candy jars!

While looking for authentic artisan shops to visit in Venice, I heard about the pigment shop, Arcobaleno.   For the past 15 years or more, they have specialized in pure pigments of exclusively Northern Italian origin used in the traditional Venetian School of painting.  You can also see these colors used in the marvelous saturated stucco facades of Venetian architecture.

What pigment is used in this  brilliant red-orange stucco? 

The intersecting relationship between pigments, artist materials, spices, and medicinal herbs; the apothecary, or speziale;  has always thrilled me. I think of my own studio as a laboratory of sorts and keep my pigments in reagent jars.  Inside Arcobaleno the pigments are dispensed from huge candy jars.  We met our friend Karima, an egg-tempera painter who was also there for Carnivale, for a few minutes of pigment geekery and chatted with the shop manager. We both found the prices of the pigments surprisingly reasonable, especially as so many of them are difficult o find in the U.S.

Display of raw pigment in the window at Arcobaleno

a rainbow of glass metal-fused beads at Arcabaleno

The shop also sells raw materials for making paints, glue and gelatin for gesso and gilding, gum arabic, resins, oils, and metallic powders. Venetian-made items like glass beads, leather aprons, incense and ceramic incense burners, glass lettering pens, and unique brass hardware make this a great gift shop as well as a useful resource for people who make beautiful things.

Finding an address in Venice is not simple. An address is simply composed of the sestieri, or district, and a randomly assigned building number.  Google Maps will often get this completely wrong.
Arcobaleno Pigmenti is located at San Marco 3457 Venezia... which is actually on Calle de le Boteghe, at the northern corner of the Campo Santo Stephano.
A second location was recently opened in the Dorsoduro neighborhood at Calle della Chiesa 682.  Phone  +39 041 5236818

 Venetian pigment at Arcobaleno

photos in this post by Lynne Rutter, February 2017. Click on any image to view larger
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Tip:  check out Venezia Autentica to learn more about local artisans, food, and culture in the city of Venice.  

 

The Private Bathchamber of the Grand Duchess

a clever detail in the Grottesche ornamentation of the bath at "La Ferdinanda"

Corner of the bathchamber

Last March we ventured outside of Florence to visit the   splendid Medici Villa of Artimino known as "La Ferdinanda."   The villa was built for the Medici Duke Ferdinand I (1549-1609) as a hunting lodge and summer residence.  A World Heritage site, the estate currently hosts private events and features a winery and a hotel.

Having called ahead to explain our project and ask permission to photograph, we were warmly greeted and allowed to explore the villa and its decoration, much of which was done by the artist Domenico Passignano as well as Bernardino Poccetti.

Hidden away in a corner of the first floor,  is the “Stanzino del Poggiale” a small bathroom also called the "Ricetto del Poggiolo"  which was created for Grand Duchess Christina of Lorraine, the wife of Ferdinand I. It is completely encrusted with painted grottesca, oval landscape insets, and wild, colorful faux marble painted by Poccetti.  Closed up for hundreds of years, the room is preserved in spectacular condition.

Alison and I could hardly contain our excitement. I fumbled about with my camera.  Erling, who has long maintained that I should have my own TV show,  took a spontaneous 2 minute video with his iPhone. Which I have posted here for you.  Because you understand, don't you?

It was very difficult to photograph this tiny space (especially while hyperventilating.) Once I got a hold of myself,  I removed the giant halogen torchère from the room and inspected the charming details of the decor using only natural light, so that the true colors could best be seen. I marveled at the color palette, which alternated warm earth colors with  a cool purple and sea green.  This led to a discussion of the color of that purple, and the pigment that may have been used to make it. Is is caput mortuum?  Well not that actual "mummy brown" pigment but the hematite that makes that cardinal-robe purple.  What about that green? Malachite, of course. Sigh.

Window bay in the bath chamber- the purple borders have completely faded away

Not your usual Tuscan color scheme-- purple and seafoam green make for a cool and serene effect

Cupid and other putti on the ceiling, a later addition painted by Domenico Passignano

Passignano designed the ceiling areas with trompe l'oeil balusters and bits of sky peeking through.  Though faded, the effect is still quite convincing.   
More details:

a trompe l'oeil gold medallion with a bathing scene

lovely perspective detail with hints of gold

tiny grottesca panel over the doorway

I hope to be posting more from this beautiful villa soon.


Visit:  Villa Medicea di Artimino
photos by Lynne Rutter
video by Erling Wold
thanks always to Alison Woolley

Lynne Rutter Studio

The Dignity of Artful Decay

Painted volteggio in the loggia delle biciclette

Wandering through the Santa Croce District I happened upon this beautiful and curious sight, a painted loggia aging quite gracefully.  Far from abandoned, this is now serving as the entrance to several residential buildings.

Loggia with bicycles

From the courtyard communicating between buildings you can see the loggia where the neighbors are storing their bicycles.

A charming entrance under the loggia

The loggia also shelters the urbane entrances to several apartments.

detail of the ceiling ornament, with music.

The ceiling is painted with mix of neoclassical and grottesca ornament from the early 1800's, using a secco-fresco  technique and a healthy serving of that delicious French Ultramarine Blue, whose invention made decorating with blue not only possible, but fashionable as well.

detail of ceiling ornament: sphinxes, with hats

The ornament features allegorical figures representing the arts (music, architecture, painting, sculpture, etc) alternating with grottesca, classical motifs, vignettes of charming European towns, and scenes with animals domestic or exotic.  Looks like they threw the whole book at this ceiling.

A giraffe and a monkey.  And why not?

Much of the surface is peeling and there may have been one attempt to touch it up in the past, but I actually like the way it looks in this context.  To me, the artful decay adds dignity to this setting.

all photos in this post by Lynne Rutter; Florence, Italy,  April 2014
click on any image to view larger

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting

Bizzarri

In the window of Bizzarri- color pigments in 19th century style jars

Via Condotta 32/R Firenze

I've often likened paint-making to being "like cooking with color," and others have called my studio an "evil mad scientist's laboratory"-  so you can imagine my exultation when discovering a collection of raw pigments in glass scientific vessels displayed in the window of D'Alessandro Bizzarri.

Behind an unassuming 19th-century style  facade in the historic center of Florence, this small, dark wunderkammer of a shop is crammed with jars and bottles, and flasks, full of pigment, resins, and acids, as well as rare and remarkable spices, herbs, and oils.

Everything you need to make your own potions and elixirs

The speziale, or apothecary, is a tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages, when trade in pigments and spices followed similar routes to Florence, and these materials were handled by dealers in peculiar and exotic substances, who understood their uses and power.  The Arte dei Medici e Speziali, a high-ranking guild in medieval Florence, included pharmacists and physicians as well as painters, who had similar needs for the chemicals and raw materials that could be found in the apothecary's shop.

Manna displayed in the window of Bizzarri along with exotic spices.

candied fruits, essential oils, and herbals...

At Bizzarri you can find essential oils and tinctures for fragrances and cosmetics; tiny glass tubes of saffron and large blow-glass jars of artisan-made candied fruit.  I bought some rose water to make a special iced tea (see below for recipe.)

orange water and rose water, used in cooking as well as cosmetics

a display of spices, herbs, and cures

In addition to these essential oils and herbs, there are pigments and resins for making paint, solvents and chemicals for artwork and restoration, and laboratory essentials like beakers, burettes, spirit lamps, and pipettes.    Our colleague Theresa Cheek of Art's The Answer was visiting Florence last week and came away with several particular angled pipettes she uses for her marbled papers, which the proprietors were able to locate quickly deep inside an antique cabinet full of glass scientific equipment.

It makes perfect sense to me that if you need a bit of something whether it's gamboge or malachite pigment or some galangal or small measure of arnica, that you seek it in such a place, and ask the advice of a knowledgeable apothecary.  

An exhaustive list of the speziale products offered can be found on the Bizzarri website. 




Rose-Iced Tea
to one pint iced tea  (recommend Earl Grey or other fragrant black tea)
add the juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
2-3 teaspoons sugar, or honey, to taste
1/4 teaspoon rosewater 
1 tablespoon of pine nuts

 (this is my variation of a Lebanese iced tea)



all photos by Lynne Rutter, February 2014
click on image to view larger

Lynne Rutter Murals + Decorative Painting