Today we bring you a preview of a 2009 calendar commissioned from superstar photographer Annie Leibovitz by the Lavazza coffee company in which iconic Italian monuments are artfully reconsidered. Shot in a studio (note the huge Trevi Fountain backdrop below), the images seem an invenzione that merges postcard photos with ancient sculpture and Italian Renaissance paintings. Above, a Botticelli-esque model rises from the waters of the Trevi Fountain, a Venus reborn for the 21st century (with an espresso cup in her hand).
A kiss on a Roman bridge evokes the romantic allure of the Eternal City, while Leonard da Vinci’s Renaissance (wo)Man rolls about in a coffee cup at Hadrian’s Villa.
The She-Wolf, in the guise of a menacing supermodel, pays a visit to the Colosseum.
On the left, a Capitoline Venus-esque model sips coffee surrounded by haute couture, while a less-than-mortally-wounded Dying Gaul-ess assumes an artful pose in Venice’s vast Piazza San Marco and a model frolics in a massive plate of pasta (love those breadcrumbs scattered across the table) in the hills of Tuscany.
