The extraordinary designs and distinctive style of Bulgari are spotlighted in a new show celebrating 125 years since the Italian jewellers opened its first shop in Rome.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni has brought together nearly 500 pieces created between 1884 and 2009, charting developments in style and fashion, and looking at Bulgari's host of glamorous fans.
The exhibition is spread out over eight rooms, the first six charting Bulgari's chronological evolution, and the last two offering a thematic take on the jeweller.
The event opens with a display of silver items created by the firm's founder Sotirios Boulgaris, who started work as a jeweller in his home village Paramythia, in northwest Greece.
Boulgaris left his village in 1877, travelling to Corfu and then Naples, before finally settling in Rome in 1881.
Here, he Italianized his name to Bulgari and founded his company in 1884, opening a shop on Via Sistina.
In 1905, together with his sons Constantino and Giorgio, who would later take over the running of the business, he opened a new store on Via Condotti that still stands today.
The second section of the exhibition looks at the next key stage in Bulgari's development. With Constantino and Giorgio running the firm, the focus switched to more modern designs of the 1930s, particularly diamond-set jewels in Art Deco style.
The exhibition moves on to look at the jeweller's output in the 1940s and 1950s, strongly influenced by Parisian trends of the time, and then continues with the clear style shift of the 1960s.
This fourth part of the show looks at an era that marked a turning point for the jeweller's, when the family's third generation took over the helm and set out to create an original new Bulgari style, marked by unusual shapes and plentiful colour.
The fifth room in the exhibition continues through the eclectic mix of the 1970s, with a variety of influences, into a series of bold new designs in the 1980s and 1990s.
The sixth section spotlights Bulgari designs of the new millennium, with their focus on beauty but also affordability, reflecting a changing economic climate.
DESIGNS BELOVED BY SCREEN LEGENDS.
The exhibition has a thematic focus throughout, grouping together coins mounted in jewellery, serpent motifs and designs incorporating the company's logo.
However, the glamorous associations of the last two rooms, with their focus on the company's close ties to the film industry of the 1950s and 1960s, are particularly likely to appeal to visitors.
One section is devoted to Bulgari pieces beloved of screen legends, such as Ingrid Bergman, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The jewels are displayed alongside photography and film clips, exploring them within the context of the La Dolce Vita era.
There is also an entire room devoted solely to jewellery owned by Elizabeth Taylor, who famously insisted on Bulgari pieces from her admirers.
'Bulgari. From History to Eternity. 125 Years of Italian Jewellery' runs in Palazzo delle Esposizioni until September 13.
