Saturday, September 14th Live on Zoom
10am Los Angeles and Phoenix, 1pm NY & Toronto, 6pm London, 7pm Florence
Born and raised in Venice, Joan Giacomin wrote The Little Book of Makeup in Venice (2021), a lively account of the history of makeup in Venice during the time of the Doges, when “La Serenissima” embodied Beauty in all its forms including the beauty of powerful women of the time. The book unveils a unique aspect of Venice—as can be seen in the paintings of Titian, Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” or Casanova’s “Memoirs” when Venice pioneered not only the world of cosmetics but also feminism. The abundance of exotic materials that arrived from the distant Orient filled the stalls of the Rialto Market and the shops of spezieri and muschieri, and were the basis for the creation of products that were the “Artifice of Absolute Feminine Beauty”— so often reflected in the masterpieces of Venetian art. A Venetian lady’s toilette (the fashionable attire or style of dress) needed expensive and innovative cosmetics to be complete – aesthetic and olfactory choices that were excessive, if not transgressive. In this conversation, Joan Giacomin will share how women “created” a porcelain face with rosy cheeks, framed by a cascade of curls, and in the process carved out a distinctly feminine path to power and freedom for generations of women who were often underestimated as fragile or submissive.
Born and raised in Venice, Joan Giacomin attended BCM, the European School of Aesthetics, and Makeup in Milan, where she graduated with honors. She worked as a makeup artist at Teatro La Fenice and in countless international films, most of which were shot in Venice. She also explored her passion for perfume, attending various courses and winning prizes with her scents, including First Prize at Profumi di Boboli 2020. In 2019, she wrote Carnet de Voyage, a collection of short stories about Venetian perfumes, which was followed by an exhibition of the same name at the Palazzo Mocenigo Museum.
To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com
Minimum suggested donation: $28
This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!
Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!
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