Gianni Versace s Casa Casuarina Photographs From Vogue
Photographed by Bruce Weber, Vogue, December 19941/8Santo Versace’s mahogany-paneled sitting room features custom Versace velvet upholstery. The ceiling trompe l’oeil was inspired by one of the designer s Miami scarves, a motif that runs through the house and gardens. It was executed by Fontana Decorazioni in Milan. The drawings and watercolors on the central and right-hand walls are by Picasso; the paintings on the left are by Jean Dufy. The marble for the late-eighteenth-century French urns came from Labrador. Throughout the house, the windows feature ombré-shaded panes.
Photographed by Bruce Weber, Vogue, December 19942/8A detail of the trompe l’oeil ceiling by Fontana Decorazioni in the drawing room of Gianni Versace s brother, Santo—the design is based on a Versace scarf print.
Photographed by Bruce Weber, Vogue, December 19943/8A view from the observatory window reveals the red-clay Spanish roof tiles, reclaimed from an old church to match the destroyed originals. The stair tower in the courtyard was inspired by the prison in Santo Domingo to which Christopher Columbus was briefly sentenced.
Photographed by Bruce Weber, Vogue, December 19944/8The alder-paneled dressing rooms that connect Versace s bathroom with the principal drawing room were designed by the late Terry Scott. An Empire mosaic-topped table and Neapolitan chairs sit on a marble floor by Enzo Gallo.
Photographed by Bruce Weber, Vogue, December 19945/8A rosy bower: Donatella Versace’s bedroom ceiling was painted on canvas in Milan by Fontana Decorazioni. The roundel mosaic picture above the walnut Empire bed was once a tabletop. The mythological goddesses painted en grisaille and set into plaster frames on either side are mid-nineteenth-century Italian.