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How a Few of Alessandro Michele’s Best Gucci Looks Measure Up to Renaissance Art

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By Mark Holgate
  • Gucci Men Fall 2016 Meets Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals
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    Photo: Indigital.tv; Portrait of Leo X 1475-1521, Raphael/ Photo: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy / Bridgeman Images
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    Gucci Men Fall 2016 Meets Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two CardinalsWay before The Young Pope made cardinal red hip, there was this Michele caped ensemble, whose vivid red recalls the robes worn by the religious dignitaries flanking Pope Leo X in Raphael’s painting dated circa 1517.

  • Gucci Women Fall 2017 Meets Madonna and Child with Angels
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    Photo: Indigital.tv; Madonna and Child with Angels, 1455, Lippi, Fra Filippo Photo: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy / Bridgeman Images
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    Gucci Women Fall 2017 Meets Madonna and Child with AngelsComparisons galore here: Celestial blue velvet? Check. Heavenly headpieces? Check. Dame Edna-esque bedazzled shades? Nope. Still, this eyewear would have looked fantastic on that Madonna back in the day, if that day was 1983, and not some time between 1450 and 1465, when Filippo Lippi painted this paean to the Virgin Mary.

  • Gucci Women Spring 2017 Meets La Primavera
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    Photo: Indigital.tv; Primavera, 1478, Botticelli, Sandro Photo: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy / Bridgeman Images
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    Gucci Women Spring 2017 Meets La PrimaveraIf you were clad in this gorgeous draped diaphanous gown of Michele’s, complete with gauzy billowing sleeves, you’d be dancing under a tree laden with fruit too, as the three Graces do in Botticelli’s sublime La Primavera, which dates from between 1477 and 1482.

  • Gucci Women Fall 2016 Meets Adoration of the Magi
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    Photo: Indigital.tv; Adoration of the Magi detail, 1423, Fabriano, Gentile da Photo: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy / Bridgeman Images
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    Gucci Women Fall 2016 Meets Adoration of the MagiWhen Too Much is Never Enough, you know you’ve found your spiritual happy place. Gentile da Fabriano’s depiction of the Nativity features more gifts than just the gold, frankincense, and myrrh on offer in the painting. Like this gleaming brocade pantsuit, it is opulence taken to the delirious and delicious max.

  • Gucci Resort 2017 Meets Madonna of the Goldfinch
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    Photo: Indigital.tv; Madonna of the Goldfinch 1483-1520, Raphael/ Photo: Getty Images
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    Gucci Resort 2017 Meets Madonna of the GoldfinchAppropriately enough, Michele showed this dress in a shade of blue that Pantone could rename Virgin Mary. It, and the flash of red-orange, echo the pastoral rendering of the Madonna in Raphael’s painting dated circa 1505-1506.