It was a timeless city that seemed to float between sea and sky. It was a bewitching city that gave one a feeling of oblivion and dream. Especially in the evening, when the fading light covered it in gold… Everything then became unreal, the facades of the palaces, the canals, the alleyways where Gabrielle Chanel loved to stroll and lose herself, sometimes, until nightfall. Venice gave her peace of mind and, at last, a taste for life. Venice, built on the sea centuries before to resist the attacks of barbarian invaders, was indestructible, just like Gabrielle Chanel, who had taken her life into her own hands long before women became independent. Chanel will always see this Venetian encounter with the lion as much more than a coincidence. For her, it was a sign of destiny and a way of renewing the thread of her life, and it was in Venice that she would find new strength. A symbol of the evangelist St. Mark, the city’s patron saint, the lion is also the embodiment of resurrection, if we are to believe the legend that its breath restored life to its three cubs. <\/p>\n The “Sous le signe du Lion” collection<\/strong> A tribute to the lion of St. Mark’s Basilica, the “Lion San Marco” ring symbolizes the encounter between Mademoiselle Chanel and Venice. In yellow gold and platinum, this sumptuous ring, produced in 5 pieces, is topped by a lion sculpted in lapis lazuli and a star set with yellow diamonds and a white diamond center.
\n![\"1935](\"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1935-Chanel-and-Roussy.jpg\")
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\nBoy Capel, her great love, had died in an accident two days before Christmas 1919.
\nTheir love story had lasted ten years. By advancing her the funds needed to open her first boutique, Boy had enabled her to conquer the independence she sought above all else. He alone had treated her as an equal. He had taught her the true way to love, without control.
\n![\"1936](\"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1936-Chanel-in-Venice.jpg\")
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\nAnd then Venice! The magical city had changed everything! It was there that she began to breathe again, that she revealed herself to herself.
\nMisia and Jos\u00e9-Maria Sert had spent weeks convincing her to follow them on their annual pilgrimage to the City of the Doges.
\nFor the first few days, she’d been wary of this eternal reference to the past, of the decrepitude that could be discerned behind the facades of the palaces on the Grand Canal.
\nTaking refuge in the imposing silence of the churches, particularly La Salute, she gradually found comfort. And little by little, she’d taken to the game. She followed Jos\u00e9-Maria Sert to museums, palaces and alleyways. He knew everything,” she later recounted. Antonello de Messina’s itineraries, the lives of the saints, what D\u00fcrer had engraved at the age of fourteen, (…) what varnishes Annibal Carracci used…”. She had immersed herself in a world of beauty.
\n![\"Venice](\"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Venise-1.jpg\")
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\nSert had offered her the splendor of this city and its relics from the Byzantine Empire. He had led her behind the altar of San Marco to discover the “Pala d’Oro”, a 3-meter-long piece of goldsmith’s work, entirely set with cabochon-polished stones. The dazzling sight of this unique treasure was to leave a lasting impression on her.
\nMisia had helped her to sort through this invasive open-air museum: “Leave those Botticellis and Vinci alone, they’re disgusting (…)” she said, with her characteristic sense of provocation. Let’s go and buy some coral to make Chinese trees”.
\n![\"Venice](\"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Venise-2.jpg\")
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\nHaving tamed the Venice of the past, she had discovered the vibrant life of 1920 Venice. A city that was coming back to life after the war. The Venetians and the first tourists enjoyed bathing and lounging on the beaches of the Lido. Then came tea on the terraces of the chic hotels lining the shore, and early or late evenings lingering over cocktails under the arcades of the Caf\u00e9 Florian.
\nAnd that strange scene that had so struck her in Venice, and which she would much later recount to Paul Morand: “One day, on the Lido, I saw a respectable old American woman sitting under a parasol; all the young American women preparing to enter the bath were entrusting her with their jewelry; in the end, she looked like one of our Auvergne Saint Virgins, studded with cabochons; the treasure of Saint Mark paled beside her.”
\n![\"Venice](\"https:\/\/www.luxsure.fr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Venise-3.jpg\")
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\nGabrielle Chanel made Venice her home. Born on August 19, 1883, was she not placed, like the City of the Doges, under the sign of the Lion?
\nThis symbol is omnipresent in the Serenissima: on the pediments and doors of palaces, mosaics and stone statues… The lion of St. Mark’s Square, a tutelary figure resting on a granite column, dominated the city, haloed by the sunlight.
\nThe lion embodied the glory and courage of Venice. Ambassadors and kings alike bowed before the lion that topped the pediment at the entrance to the Doge’s Palace. The most famous artists, such as Carpaccio, depicted him on their canvases.
\nIt was he who gave strength to the city of which he was the emblem. <\/p>\n
\nFor Gabrielle Chanel, the lion became a recurring and familiar symbol. It figured prominently among the objects adorning her apartment on rue Cambon. Whether in gilded bronze or marble, placed on a table or carved on the edge of a mantelpiece, it is there, conquering, its paw resting on the world. Mademoiselle Chanel used it as an emblem in her creations, adorning the buttons on her suits or the clasp on her handbags. <\/p>\n
\nA new Haute Joaillerie collection, “Sous le signe du Lion” features Gabrielle Chanel’s emblematic animal in a collection of 58 exceptional pieces.
\nKing of the zodiac, solar and majestic, guardian of the Serenissima, whose strength and beauty it embodies, the lion occupies a very special place in Gabrielle Chanel’s imagination.
\nFirst appearing in CHANEL’s Haute Joaillerie universe in 2012, the lion is part of Mademoiselle Chanel’s symbolic language and one of her sources of inspiration.
\nThe “Lion C\u00e9leste” brooch in white gold and diamonds features the motif of the Venetian lion in Mademoiselle Chanel’s apartment, with one paw resting on the world.
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\nIn the same spirit, the “Constellation du Lion” brooch and earrings unite the lion and the comet. These two symbols, dear to Mademoiselle, combine gold with yellow and white diamonds, yellow sapphires and rutilated quartz. <\/p>\n
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