In his celebrated 1748 volume, Charles-Louis de Secondat – better known as the Baron de Montesquieu – identified the “Spirit of the Laws” in that chain of relationships, or rather, in that organization of relationships  capable of giving life to a system.

A system: that is, a series of interconnected relationships that confer identity and originality to actions, exchanges, or procedures that might otherwise remain isolated. The creation of the system itself specifically strengthens each element and incorporates it into a meaningful structure destined to become recognizable.

Consider the Florentine Renaissance: the splendors crafted by Botticelli and Piero della Francesca are undoubtedly the most visible and evocative representations of an unmatched era. But/except the artists’ talent was born and developed within a fertile urban, social, political, and cultural context: bankers, astute multipliers of value, were also refined patrons and skilled investors who supported the creation of beauty.

A beauty that rulers regarded as a political tool: the dress worn by Eleonora of Toledo, noble and proud wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici, along with her son (and future cardinal) Giovanni, exuded splendor and richness that impress the viewers just as much as Bronzino’s talent, the noblewoman’s gaze, or the chromatic details.

An emblem of grandeur, strength, and sophisticated taste, Eleonora’s dress powerfully expressed the identity of the Medici and their artistic language: expert craftsmanship, global influence, engagement with the arts, economic power, and the appeal of the period’s most prominent talents.

Connecting arts and crafts to creating beauty means returning to imagine a system of the beautiful, the good, and the just in which the virtue of law makes the exercise of freedom possible, creating virtuous relationships (between capital, commerce, art, and craft) that can give life to a minute but spectacular economy, still potentially fertile for territorial culture.

Fertile because it is eloquent and authentic, based on a value that, paraphrasing Horace, we could define as “aere perennius,” more lasting than bronze: that of creativity and the highest quality.

Expression of a school of doing and an er which makes school and makes epoch as much as genius does.

What has happened to our ability to operate within the “spirit of the laws” in a dialogue that respects freedom and creativity? What series of barren deprivations threatens to extinguish the prestige that has long defined the perception of master craftspeople, whom the entire world has always admired and praised as ambassadors of a know-how intertwined with intuition, science, and imagination?

A reasoning on applied arts and artistic and creative craftsmanship, which takes the form of an intellectually stimulating circular discourse, does not seem the ideal place to seek contemporary answers to questions that are not only economic, but also profoundly cultural.

It may even seem bizarre at first glance to trace – amid global thrust and the questioning of creative relationships between craftsmanship and industry – that yearning for redemption that makes the eyes of master artisans shine whenever they talk about their work.

It may even seem ambitious to try to derive a new formula from the arts that have led to design, one that could help us see more clearly in the present and, consequently, in the future. Exhibitions dedicated to craftsmanship and design, no matter how prestigious, are not the new astrology or modern alchemy – they cannot synthesize what no longer exists.

The arts and crafts are not the mythological artifacts of an imaginary encyclopaedic palace, destined for cataloguing, and taxonomy that precedes taxidermy.

However, from careful and effective observation of the desires of new generations, a spark emerges that potentially energizes our view of the world: already eight years ago, for example, IPG Mediabrands stated that Millennials seek more sustainability, smartness, and authenticity.

To understand what does “more authenticity” meanis perhaps one of the keys to understanding the potential necessity of a craft renaissance: the desire, on the part of the client, to reappropriate their role as commissioner – and no longer just as passive consumer of others’ decisions.

A desire that marketing still approaches with hesitation, but which could once again integrate the different components of this world – so powerful and yet  so fragile –  in a single system.

A system rooted not in an abstract invocation of the past but in a deliberately concrete design and planning of economic growth, aimed at shaping territorial arrangements, for which the arts and crafts have always been central and part of a vital identity.

To perceive, live, and understand the world of arts and crafts as a “system” means recognizing that the creation of value, which always accompanies the notion of excellence, arises not in a sterile or ideal setting but precisely within a system of meaning. It occurs within a physical and cultural space, in an environment that thrives on creativity as well as research, awareness as well as knowledge, and a space with deep roots in a past that remains generative.

This generativity naturally also introduces a deeply political dimension: and this is one of the outcomes that, we hope, the many initiatives happening around the world are leading to.

Where the word “politics” must necessarily be understood as a single trunk, rooted around three core foundations.

One is of Aristotelian type: it is politics as orderly management of complexity, as a form of good constitutional and effective government. The second is tinged with the disturbing colorcolour of opportunism and duplicity: it is a so-called “Machiavellian” root, and refers to politics as an exercise of power for personal and often speculative ends. The third we could define as Augustinian, that is, in line with Saint Augustine’s reflections: there exists an earthly city, but also a heavenly city.

Our world exists, with its relationships and the possibilities given to us; but there is also a different level that we need to look toward and strive for.

Placing new emphasis on “doing well,” on doing with care, competence, and love should become the foundation for building a new transformative competence in many local systems. Because what better place could there be in the world to test the ability to turn a series of less-than-ideal elements into something better than the workshop of a craftsman?

Master artisans, whether alchemists or apprentices, have always been transformers: they take elements that everyone has available and create something extraordinary. They manage to give a single beat of a wing to enhance even the most ordinary or trivial creations, making them special and beautiful.

They exemplify a gentle, sustainable, and culturally advanced form of productive skill. A capability not only to create but also, and more importantly, to transform a dream into a project, which then becomes an object that is never just a “thing” but always a “good”, as they say in the world of luxury – luxury goods.

Transformation should be a process of rebirth that does not only interest our productive capacity.

We often experience transformation as a problem: we would rather not change anything.

Yet, it is exactly when everything is tested and appears unchangeable that it becomes essential to introduce elements of significant innovation that have made an impact/could leave an impact.

Valuing arts and crafts within a vital system becomes a symbol of change that renews, regenerates, and improves us, all while preserving what is beautiful, good, and true from our past.

I’m unsure if Saint Augustine would agree, but I believe that anyone who wants to look toward the heavenly city while living firmly in the city of man isn’t afraid of change.

On the contrary, they plan it and set it in motion. Usually, they see it through to the end and bring it to port.