Press & Media

Beauty and Ugliness in the Renaissance – Bozar Bruxelles

Beauty and ugliness have always fascinated people, yet their meanings shift over time. Bellezza e Bruttezza explores how artists from Italy and Northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries depicted these extremes, from refined ideals to deliberate grotesques. A rare opportunity to see extraordinary works, by renowned artists such as BotticelliTitianTintorettoLeonardo da VinciMichelangeloCranach the ElderMassys, and many others. And also three of my scent bottles attributed to the 16th century!

Collezione Magnani. I flaconi

antique scent bottles

My collection

I started my collection of scent bottles more than forty years ago. Made of different materials over a long period from antiquity to 1940, they now comprise a collection of over 1200 pieces produced mostly in Europe, but not only. All containers are no taller than 9 cm (3 inches).

Silver scent-jar in closed pomander form

Scent-jar in closed pomander form, in silver with chased floral ornaments. It opens in four parts: the bottom contains a sponge th...

Crystal scent bottle with Napoleonic portraits

Cut crystal scent bottle with white ceramic paste inlays, with a double portrait of Napoleon and his second wife Marie Louise, lat...

Ivory scent bottle with two carved portraits: Emperor Costantine and his wife Fausta Flavia Maxima

Ivory bottle with rich carved decoration of foliage and acorns, partially eroded by time. On the front the profile of a man with a...

Blue glass scent bottle enclosed in a elaborated openwork cage showing two Saints. Rare closure

Blue glass flat-round scent bottle enclosed in a gilded silver openwork cage showing on the front Saint Ulrich (identified by the ...