The ingenious Raphael an inspiration for the Pininfarina stylus collection

Raphael is the third mighty, majestic name that completes the Big Three of the High Renaissance, along with Leonardo and Michelangelo. He created a style of his own that is distinguished by the harmony and balance of its composition, the pure drawing and spiritual expression of its figures, often set in spaces of profound perspective. He masterfully applied harmonious color schemes, with an unsurpassed combination of saturated and transparent colors. In his painting, the spirit of the High Renaissance reaches full expression in the glory of classical harmony and ideal beauty.

The creators and craftsmen of Pininfarina Segno, the collection of writing instruments, have done their utmost to realize the desire to pay a fitting tribute to this ingenious artist on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death, which was in 2020.

One of their creations is the Piuma Raffaello stylus, inspired by Raphael ‘s view of art: that beauty, however elusive it may seem, is the most concrete thing because it is the most sought-after; and to create it artistically, besides talent, takes a lot of knowledge.

Crafted entirely from maple wood, this stylus with a dynamic feather-like shape bears Raphael’s signature, which is invisible to the naked eye and revealed through the included polarized lens built into the desk stand.

“Things are not always what they seem,” Pininfarina seems to be saying, alluding to the mastery with which Raphael creates illusions of spatial depth (one will recall the master’s spectacular fresco “The School of Athens” from the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican).

„The School of Athens“, Raphael

The second model dedicated to Raphael, Cambiano Raffaello, symbolically celebrates his mastery of color. At an early age, the great master began to realize that behind beauty lies a combination of factors whose secret can only be unraveled by an artist of supreme talent through thorough research and attention to every detail. To this end, Raphael observed the great artists of his time and not only discovered their secrets, but surpassed them.

In this sense, his talent and technical knowledge stand out above all in the way he uses color. On the box of Cambiano Raffaello stylus, made of cedar wood, the monochrome drawings create a seemingly chaotic image that is clarified if viewed through the two included color filters. Interacting with these visual objects thus becomes a game of exploration and surprise: the lenses hide the details of the same color and highlight the details of the complementary one. The stylus itself is made of aluminum, with inserts of aromatic cedar wood.

We would also add that both Piuma Raffaello and Cambiano Raffaello come with the most recognizable feature of the Pininfarina Segno collection, the patented material called Ethergraf. It’s a metal alloy (inspired by the silver pencil used by Leonardo da Vinci) that writes by microscopically “scratching” and oxidizing the paper, leaving a trace like graphite but as permanent as if it were written in ink. Ethergraph tips are virtually indestructible, which means they can write indefinitely. Just as the duration of the beauty created by Raphael is unlimited.