Memento Vivere—Remembering the Macabre, Yet Magnificent Jewelry of Attilio Codognato

At the pinnacle of high jewelry, the Venetian house of Codognato claims its own rarefied orbit—peculiar and sublime. Only true connoisseurs qualify for access to the jeweler’s unsettling bestiaire of enamel skulls glaring through ruby-lit hollows, golden serpents coiling possessively around toads and rats, and miniature coffins swinging like sinister medieval talismans from antique cameo necklaces. Such is the macabre yet magnificent universe of jeweler extraordinaire Attilio Codognato, the late maestro of erudite, enigmatic adornment.

His tiny atelier, tucked away like a reluctantly-shared secret in a narrow calle, mere steps from the tourist-swollen pomp of Piazza San Marco, sits worlds apart from the polished vitrines of conventional haute joaillerie. Codognato’s creations aren’t about