Description
The Ibisco is a precious and sophisticated frame that harmonically unites materials that are very different from one another. For this version of the frame, Giberto Arrivabene chose Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua’s precious Red Ibisco fabric from the ZigZag collection. The red cotton velvet is produced by Bevilacqua: historic laboratory on the Grand Canal in Venice that to this day weaves its velvets with XVIII century looms. It recalls the old fiammati, or flamed, textiles that adorned the sofas in Palazzo Papadopoli, today Aman Venice, when the designer was a child.
The fabric, the glass canne, or canes, personally chosen by Giberto in the Murano furnaces where they are handblown, and the metal nails contribute in giving the frame an elegant look and strong character. The mahogany base adds a feeling of solidity.
In the photograph (only for show) Bianca and Giberto Arrivabene’s children, Viola, Vera, Mafalda, Maddalena and Leonardo are immortalized by Deborah Tubeville for Vogue Italia in 2005 as they play in Palazzo Papadopoli’s garden.
The Designer
The life of Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga is viscerally linked to Venice. His childhood memories, the most beautiful, are those that have taken place in the rooms of Palazzo Papadopoli, between frescoes of Tiepolo and family affection. “In my earliest memories Venice had other colours. It was more obscure, dramatic, decayed and deeply romantic – simply beautiful. There wasn’t the same light like there is today – more dazzling perhaps, but less poetic.”
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Craftmanship
Each piece derives from a watercolour sketch made by Giberto on tracing paper: “When I see something that inspires me, or an object that I like, I sketch and rework it – then move on to the realization of it.”
The glass, the main material in the collections, is worked exclusively in Murano. Each glass, each specific object, is blown by master glassmakers in the Venetian furnaces.
Giberto takes his watercolours to discuss with them and refine the project, check its feasibility, and to make eventual changes.