In this precise instant, she enters an intoxicating rapture. As her scarlet gown drapes epically behind her, elegance and grace illuminating from every curve and contour of her sleek body, she drowns in this euphoric moment. There she drifts, her hand in his hand, her heart against his heart, lost in a galaxy of passion, of love. While a violinist plays a delicate, sweet hymn from afar, their bodies, their souls, harmonize. She is lost in his touch. She is lost in the faint tune. She is lost in her dream.

Leopoldo Metlicovitz’s Italian poster Sogno d’un Valzer, meaning “Dream Waltz,” may have been a one dimensional advertisement for the opera of the same name, but it doesn’t take more than a few glances at the nearly seven foot tall marvel to become engrossed in its tale and see much more than ink on canvas. Like most Italian poster art, the combination of rich colors and provocative image gives life to an illustration, not only allowing, but encouraging it to breath. Raging with such drama, passion and grace, it goes without contest that the vintage poster art of Italy is not only a stunning contribution to the art world, but it is a true reflection of the spirit of Italian culture.

Coming to life in the late 1800s, Italian posters were first created in an effort to promote one of Italy’s greatest cultural gifts, the opera. “The opera pretty much is Italian,” says Jim Lapides, avid art lover and owner of International Poster Gallery on Newbury Street, “The Italian spirit is dramatic, grand- even melodramatic. All these elements come out in the opera.”

Giulio Ricordi, the Italian music publisher behind famed composers Puccini and Verdi, wanted to stimulate interest for his operas and opened a lithographic printing press to create masterpiece advertisements. Though the lithographic process, involving more than one ton of limestone, acid and ink, proved tiresome and unwieldy, time and time again the ends surpassed the means and with each press a tremendous treasure was born.

Masterminding Ricordi’s poster operation was Adolfo Hohenstein, an artist of Russian and German decent, though notably recognized as the “Father of the Italian Poster.” Creating momentous pieces such as La Boheme (1896), the 10-foot tall Tosca (1899) and Madama Butterfly (1904), Hohenstein appreciated the melodramatic yet exquisitely graceful Italian culture and truly set the stage and standards for Italian poster art.

As Ricordi’s printing press began to focus on more than just opera, taking on accounts such as Campari and the Naples department store Mele, Italian poster art began to own distinct qualities that differed from other culture’s poster art. According to Lapides, whose gallery has become somewhat of a New England art institution, celebrating 15 years of business and housing more than 10,000 vintage and modern posters, “Only the Italians could think of a creation so wild, so over the top.”

While other regions shared poster content with those of Italy, for example, France also produced posters advertising opera, food, beverage and travel, Lapides believes the physical and emotional characteristics of Italian poster art put them in a league of their own.

Compared to the posters of France, which were often illustrated with a large variety of bright, flamboyant colors, Italy’s poster art exercised righteously bold Earth tones. The colors were rich and powerful, such as the scarlet red that drapes the dreamer in Sogno d’un Valzer or the deep, electric purple grapes in Plinio Codognato’s Vini di Lusso, but the palate was simpler, more classical, than that of other regions.

In terms of evoking emotion, perhaps there is no other culture so adept at bringing a poster to life with such drama and spectacle. In conjunction with the rich color choice, the story behind any great Italian poster, specifically those for the opera, evokes a world wind of sentiments. In Hohenstein’s Tosca, the tragedy practically leaps from the canvas. The deep shadowing on the woman’s face, the epic pool of richly colored blood the sheriff lays in, even the candles lit beside his dead body vividly expose the performance and deep passion behind a simply one dimensional piece. “There is an exquisite drama,” says Lapides, the self-proclaimed largest collector of Italian poster art in the world. “So exquisite you would want to die.”

But while today Italian poster art is appreciated by art connoisseurs and then some around the world, with some pieces valued upward of $100,000, it was the Italians themselves who were last on the bandwagon. Speaking of the native lack of interest in the poster masterpieces, Lapides says, “They had Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci- they weren’t phased by a lot of this.” Not to mention, many posters were destroyed during the Fascist regime and carelessly disposed of when Ricordi’s warehouse was cleaned out, typically keeping only one copy of each poster.

Scarcity aside, however, the drama and grandeur of Italian poster art lives on. And truthfully, with such rich color palates and obscene emotion, how could it not? It’s no surprise that the value of these pieces continue to skyrocket, because much like the spirit of Italian culture itself, vintage Italian art can only get better with age.

Historical information was provided by The Italian Poster Rediscovered, written by Tony Fusco, President of the Art Deco Society of Boston and Jim Lapides, owner of International Poster Gallery – 205 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts