It appears that in Babette von Dohnanyi two souls exist: one in her intrinsic “direct”
relationship with the materials she moulds, materials which though treated with
extreme gentleness are transformed into strong block ashlar shapes like ancient
stones (her bracelets and rings) or created according to a subtle restless geometry
(her brooches) passed on to her by the school of Babetto where she studied in Salzburg;
the other a soul that declines her “feminine” jewellery art, with references to archaic
mytology and anthropology, traditionally connected to a woman’s life, to the everyday
world, and embodied in a naturalness and softness. To this soul her necklaces in gold
and traslucent silver belong, crocheted, lace-like and luminous, works, which in their
rhytmic movement, let light filter through the perforations of the boules, braid-sculptures,
charged with a delicate tension.
Lara Vinca Masini – Firenze October 2001
