Study of a Line

A line begins. Across a canvas or a parchment. In the looping of gold around a finger, in the branchings of a family name which outlasts blood. A study, on the other hand, contemplates and reflects. It creates room for finer details, whether these be the clasps around a gem, or hands clasped in faith.

Four houses have risen. The House of Canossa, whose matriarch Matilda knelt beneath starry gold ceilings; the Gracchi, sons of Cornelia, whose words shaped republics; the Medici, whose wealth made cold marble come alive; the Borgias, whose secrets unfurled behind hidden doorways. Each held power, not only through birth, but through patronage, symbol, and the wending ways that shaped their image in stone, paint, and myth-making.

This collection traces the reverberations of these legacies. It draws on wine-red and lapis: the colours of lively empire and contemplative midnight. Gold and silver are studded with bright white gems, like stars set in mineral skies. There are lions and braids, seals and orbs. Marks of succession and of secrecy. Resin catches the light like stained glass; chains encircle not only wrists and necks, but past and present.

Study of a Line speaks of lineage. Of rooms within rooms, where antechambers contained and echoed whispered plans. Of cloisters and courtyards, private portraits and public rituals. Of women who moved beneath the weight of velvet and expectation. Their gestures linger in carved hands, and now, hands that carve.

A line does not end. It turns, returns, begins again.