Osanna Visconti di Modrone

After studying at the Academy of Jewels in Rome and the Gemological Institute of America in New York, Osanna Visconti returned to Rome where, in a basement workshop in Via Giuli, she discovered the volcanic magnetism of the cera persa (lost wax) casting technique. It was love at first sight. 

Visconti relocated to Milan over 30 years ago, establishing herself at the center of her the city’s creative soul. Over the decades, her passion for jewels slowly gave way to unique visions of more sizable objects and home furnishings. Starting at first with bowls and vases, she worked her way up to stools, candleholders, and lamps. Ultimately, she came to craft the extensive creations she is now well-known for, including tables, armchairs, mirrors, room dividers, and multiple-tiered bookshelves. 

Nature is Visconti’s enduring source of inspiration: “In the quietude of a walk in the woods, my attention is captured by a leaf, a flower, a fallen branch. One out of hundreds. I select it and collect it. It’s a gift from nature that I celebrate through my creative spirit and then freeze in time by transforming it into a piece of bronze. Yes, what I love most about my work is the sense of eternity, immortality.”

Visconti sits at her workbench, surrounded by wax sheets and countless tools. She sets her alcohol lamp aflame, rips a piece of wax and starts warming and delicately sculpting it. From jagged edges and shifting surfaces, sometimes wavy, other times striped, the object she has in mind slowly starts to take shape. At long last, it becomes the plaster mold, the defining element to be cast in bronze at her Milanese foundry, with the help of craftsmen renowned for their unmatched precision and skill.