Rich exhibition showcases the bygone tools for living in style
Back in Medieval times, artisans and artists were not divided into separate guilds and painting or sculpture were not considered to be any higher or more creative form of artistic expression than the applied arts. The Renaissance changed all of that by elevating the fine arts to the status of the liberal arts. Yet artisans continued to make such beautifully and finely crafted objects that the distinction between a utilitarian object and a work of art now seems unfounded. This high quality of tools, apparatuses and utensils is cast beyond doubt in «Tools of Art: The Art of Tools – From the Renaissance to the Industrial Era,» an exquisite and unusual exhibition currently being held at the Pireos annex of the Benaki Museum. Drawn from the Luigi Nessi collection, with some pieces from the collection of the Musee de L’Horlogerie de La Chaux-de-Fonds, the exhibition includes a wealth of tools and utensils used from the 16th – 19th centuries, in science, all sorts of trades (book binding, leather making, silver-smithing and many others), cooking, medicine, beauty, smoking or recreation. It provides an original way of looking at the history of European science, professions, trades, domestic life and living. Although most of those tools were made to serve very specific, standard purposes, many of them were also intended to end up as «extraordinary objects,» things that would one day become part of a nobleman’s collection. Others were an exercise at skill by artisans seeking the status of a high craftsman. In both cases, beauty, expensive materials and quality workmanship were as important, if not more so, than utility. The exhibition includes an impressively broad range of objects. There are mid-18th century graphometers used in topography and chartography, sun dials also from France, chocolate grinders, presses used in book-binding, meat-hooks, surgical instruments, compasses and other tools used in navigation, a set of irons each used for a different effect (for pleating or giving volume to a garment) or instruments for constructing rifles. They are all beautifully made and elegant, with some standing out more than others for their aesthetic quality. An example are the French, late 18th century machines used for spinning and winding balls of thread. The one with the gold-plated bronze wheel and velvet base has a particular, luxurious, «objet d’art» feel about it. Among the exhibition’s rarest pieces is a wooden compass that comes from mid-18th century Alsace and was an instrument for making barrels. Some objects belong to professions that are extinct or have been replaced by mass-production machines and utensils. Others, however, have closer analogies to today and those are the ones that a contemporary audience is most likely to relate to. An example are the early 19th century French beauty kits. As with the rest of the extraordinary items found in the exhibition, they are a testament to a style of life that, at least for the privileged few, came very close to art. «Lifestyle» may be a word that refers to the present but the Benaki exhibition shows beyond a doubt that living in style belongs to the past. The show «Tools of Art: The Art of Tools – From the Renaissance to the Industrial Era» is on at the Pireos New Wing of the Benaki Museum on 138 Pireos (tel 210.345.3111) through June 10. A catalogue in Greek and French is available. Open Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Fridays and weekends, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. www.benaki.gr. Unique: the Nessi collection Swiss architect Luigi Nessi began collecting tools and apparatuses back in the early 1960s. Prompted by an interest in history and ethnology, he sought tools at specialized antique fairs and auctions around the world and gradually built a collection that shows the development of science, the rise of different professions and changes in ways of living that took place in continental Europe and England from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Comprising more than 15,000 rare objects, the Nessi collection is an extremely diverse and rich assemblage of utilitarian objects, all of them specimens of supreme craftsmanship. With the exception of a few tools that were produced for small but reputable industries (the late 19th century tools used for working with leather and produced by Blanchard is an example), all holdings are hand-crafted and usually the work of professional craftsmen. Well-preserved and in impressively good condition, the collection’s holdings are documented and classified in respect to detailed typologies. Nessi also collected documents and books from the 16th-19th centuries, related to the classification, study and history of tools and apparatuses. His specialized library consists of 4,000 volumes on subjects related to the objects in his collection. Besides the current exhibition at the Benaki, parts of the Nessi collection have been formerly shown at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan and the Musee de Cultures in Basel. The Luigi Nessi part of the Benaki exhibition is organized by the collector himself and his daughters, Daniela and Flavia, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum and art historian Iris Criticou.
