BVLGARI KALEIDOS: Colors, Cultures and Crafts

Convertible sautoir-bracelets in gold with emeralds, rubies, amethysts, turquoises, citrines and diamonds, ca. 1969
Bvlgari Heritage Collection
Photo: Barrella - Studio Orizzonte Gallery

For millennia, color has been one of the strongest inspirations in art. Painters, designers and sculptors, as well as enamelers, goldsmiths and jewelers used the visual force of colors to represent the world as they saw it, but also to express emotions that their works allowed to convey and share.

We can agree on the fact that color is universal. It is universal, because it is perceived by human beings with one of the five senses: sight. Since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scientists have analyzed the chromatic spectrum, establishing a true science of colors, allowing us to understand how our body, from the eyes to our brain, reacts to them. However, color is also cultural, because it is felt through the prism of our education and the civilization in which we grew up. Historians have thus passionately studied the role that color may have had in antique and modern creation, highlighting the extent to which the symbolism of each color was experienced differently from one country to another. To study color in High Jewelry is to embark on a journey to the heart of the gems which compose it, to live an experience guided by the light which passes through it and is reflected on the precious metals. Kaleidos comes from the Greek language, meaning “beautiful” (kalos) and “form” (eidos). As inside a precious kaleidoscope, Bvlgari invites the visitor to immerse into an exhibition featuring jewels selected from the Bvlgari Heritage Collection as well as loaned by prestigious private collections, with about 350 pieces blending materials, forms and tones to fascinate the eyes through the power of color, beyond cultures, in search of beauty and excellence.