The work of jewelry designer, Giampaolo Babetto (b. 1947) is distinguished by geometric shapes rendered with exceptionally fine goldsmithing, a technique he learnt under instructor Mario Pinton at the Instituto Statale d’Art Pietro Salvatico in Padua, Italy.  A member of the “Padua School”, Babetto has been an influential figure in art jewelry in Italy and around the world.

Babetto originally studied architecture at the Institute but discovered a preference for working with his hands in sculpture and jewelry making. He has worked in a variety of styles in his long career, exploring sources as diverse as classical architecture, Renaissance painting and geometry. He prefers working in gold due to its malleability and warm sheen, which he sometimes combines with unconventional materials such as plastic, glass, enamel, dusting the surface with a velvet-like pigment in luminous reds or blues. His mastery of gold is evident in his work which are included in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Selected Works of Giampaolo Babetto