SL3 DA VINCI, A TRIBUTE TO THE GENIUS
The pair of SL3 over-and-under shotguns celebrating 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci: two unique pieces that inaugurate the tradition of commemorative SL3s made every year by Beretta.
LEONARDO DA VINCI VISITED OUR VALLEY
There are evidences that Leonardo Da Vinci visited Val Trompia, the valley Beretta is located in since 1526.
Da Vinci probably drew a detailed map around 1510, showing the distance in miles between settlements and the presence of an "iron mine" in the higher part of the valley. There is also a sketch of bellows used to feed the forge. Finally, the sketch for the main altar of the Church of San Francesco d'Assisi in Brescia, likely a first step in the commission by Francesco Sanson to Leonardo da Vinci, but never realized and subsequently entrusted to Romanino. These and other documentary traces were presented in the historical reconstruction made by Brescia scholar, Architect Valentino Volta, and by Professor of History of Art at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Brescia, Professor Mario Marubbi, and exhibited to the public in May 2019.
ROOTS MATTER. SO DOES HISTORY.
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta created a unique set to celebrate this connection: a pair of beautifully engraved SL3 over-and-under shotguns, whose bottom of the receiver portrays old Da Vinci's self-portrait on one shotgun and the Mona Lisa on the other one. The engravings were created using the hammer and chisel and burin techniques. The set is completed by a leather gun case made in the in-house Atelier, embellished with a pyrographed reproduction of the Vitruvian man. "Roots matter. So does history," commented Franco Gussalli Beretta, president of Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta. "Celebrating the passage of Italy's greatest genius in Val Trompia makes us full of pride and at the same time responsible that the skills and abilities, which Leonardo indicated as unique to this territory, continue to exist and renew themselves to generate value and growth, not only for the Valley but for the entire made-in-Brescia system and more generally for made-in-Italy."
THE SELF-PORTAIT AND THE MONA LISA
SL3 Over-and-under platform is the one that best embodies the combination of innovation and tradition of Beretta and, as such, is the most suitable to pay homage to the greatest Italian genius. Two of the most famous themes of Leonardo's painting , his self-portrait and the Mona Lisa, have been placed into the frame of the receiver flower engraving. Leonardo Da Vinci's signature was engraved on the barrels using the gold inlay technique. The trigger guard was also embellished with a script displaying his year of death, 1519, the shotgun creation year and the 500th anniversary, again using the gold inlay technique. A high grade red walnut wood was chosen for the stock and the forend to remind the "sanguine" graphic technique Leonardo used to adopt. As a final touch, the gun case. A particular combination of colors was studied: beige, as it recalls the parchment paper that Leonardo used for his sketches; and bordeaux, which is linked to the red color of the woods. Inside a superb leather patch that reports - with pyrography technique - the famous Leonardian drawing of the Vitruvian man.
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