Phoenix Lacquer Art Great Masters Caravaggio Fountain pen

The Phoenix Lacquer Art Great Masters series honours the greatest masters of the world. In this series Phoenix honors great masters like Caravaggio, Michelangelo and Raphael. On the cap a (self)portrait of the artist can be found. While on the barrel a masterpiece from the artist is beautifully painted by the artists of Phoenix.

Caravaggio was born in 1571 and was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta and Sicily. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lightning, which had a formative influence on baroque painting.

The cap of the pen is, as the other Great Masters editions, beautifully painted with a portrait of Caravaggio. This painting was inspired by a drawing of Caravaggio made by Ottavio Leoni around 1621. Ottavio Leoni was an Italian painter and his portrait of Carvaggio is the only documented portrait of the famous painter by another artist. The barrel of the Caravaggio edition is made of a beautiful replica of the iconic painting The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. This painting was made in 1602 and commissioned by the French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli . The canvas hangs in Contarelli chapel altar in the church of the French congregation San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. It is one of the three Caravaggio canvases in the chapel, hanging between the larger earlier canvases of The Martydrom of Saint Matthew and The Calling of Saint Matthew. In the work featured on the altar, the angel belongs to an aerial and sublime dimension, enveloped in an encircling rippled sheet. The restless Matthew leans to work, as the angel enumerates for him the work to come. All is darkness but for the two large figures, Matthew appears to have rushed to his desk, his stool teetering into our space. His expression is sober .

The bodies of the Phoenix Lacquer Art pens are made from resin by Visconti in Florence. After that the clean black bodies are sent to Russia where the artists of Phoenix Lacquer Art have the complete freedom to decorate it with (egg)tempera, gold leaf and lacquer. The fountain pens also use the Power Filler mechanism which is an invention of Dante del Vechhio, former CEO and founder of Visconti. The fountain pens have a 18kt gold duotone Medium nib with ebonite feed. The nibs are made by Peter Bock in Heidelberg, Germany.  If you are not into writing with a fountain pen, a spare rollerball forepart can be purchased as an extra option.

Phoenix makes beautiful art works on writing instruments in the style of the Russian lacquer and miniature art, which is a tradition that dates back for centuries. The striking images that are created by the artisans are done because of their passion for this art style. There is something miraculous about the birth of a precious object of art. It all starts with a thought, an idea and the artist gives the most perfect expression to this inspiration.

All the art works on the Phoenix pens are handmade, crafted with expert skill in limited editions of sometimes only one, by only the greatest Russian artists. It takes over six to eight weeks to paint a single pen and is very insensitive for the artist. A Phoenix writing instrument is more than just a writing instrument, it is a piece of art, a lifetime gift, delivering exceptional writing pleasure.