Fendi Donates Major Contemporary Artwork To Rome

Fendi has commissioned a new artwork by the Italian artist Giuseppe Penone as a gift to the city of Rome, celebrating the brand's longstanding association with art and culture.

Titled Foglie di Pietra ('Leaves of Stone'), Penone's beautiful bronze sculpture depicts a pair of trees whose branches interlace to bear the weight of a marble block. This spring, the 18-metre-high piece will be permanently installed opposite Palazzo Fendi in the central Roman location of Largo Goldoni.

Penone's use of precious materials recalls the grandeur of the baroque age, while the fragments of ruins held within the branches of the trees hark back even further, to the classical and mediaeval periods. The juxtaposition of two opposing spheres – the natural and the man-made – within a striking architectural context conveys the sense of a city that is constantly evolving yet is deeply rooted in history.

The donation continues Fendi's long-established tradition of promoting art and culture in Rome, and coincides with the launch later this month of Penone's solo exhibition at the brand's Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana headquarters.

From: Harper's BAZAAR UK

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