An exceptionally luxurious, slipcased celebration of the enchanting carved capitals of the Doge’s Palace in Venice

Presented in a luminous perspex slipcase, with gilt edges, stamping and paper changes throughout, Imitatio Vitae features close-up photographs of the Doge’s Palace capitals drawn from the Cameraphoto Arte archive and selected by photographer Marina Cicogna (born 1934), who also added her own shots.

The column capitals of the Doge’s Palace in Venice take us back in time, revealing glimpses of everyday life in the 14th century with their depictions of life in the fields and the workshops of the period, baskets of fruit and animals, cherubs and love scenes, marital relations and family groups, and images of cosmology and astrological houses. Sculpted by unknown but extraordinary masters, the carved bas-reliefs act out ancient and fascinating stories. In 1851, English art critic John Ruskin described these large capitals as a “course of divinity and of natural history.”

A lavish volume coproduced by Gucci and Marsilio, Imitatio Vitae brings the extravagant details of the Doge’s Palace to life.