Costa Diadema, Costa Cruises’ new 132,500-ton flagship,  will be featured in a monthlong November debut that includes a preview cruise from Trieste, a christening overnight and a trio of seven-night inaugural cruises November. 8, 15 and 22. On board will be over 7,000 pieces of specially commissioned modern art that perfectly complement, if not define, the ship’s innovative interior design, themed Regality. 

“We are trying to evoke different feelings through the ambiance of the interiors on Costa Diadema,” said Joseph Farcus, the architect on Costa newbuilds since Costa Atlantica, which debuted in 2000. “The art and design elements are essential to achieving the emotional dimension we want guests to experience.”

Costa Diadema, the Regina del Mediterraneo (Queen of the Mediterranean), will exhibit a wide array of original art, reproductions and silk-screen prints by 41 artists, 38 of them Italian. The artists were commissioned by Costa to interpret the theme of regality, as in belonging to or befitting a monarch, through painting, sculpture, photography, graphics, architecture and design. 

Curator and artistic duo Casagrande & Recalcati selected both recognized and emerging artists to take inspiration from contemporary culture. Among them are well-known artists Sam Havadtoy and Mario Donizetti, as well as rising Italian artists Vanni Cuoghi, Resi Girardello, Andy, Roberta Savelli and Claudio Prestinari.   Highlighted areas of the ship of special interest to art fans:

• Among the art pieces are 190 original works, including paintings hung in suites and in the stairwells, and other mixed-media works placed at the entrance to the theater.
• Public areas such as the Corona Blu Restaurant, Costa Diadema Club Restaurant, Eliodoro Atrium and Lido Diana will feature 260 works of digital art and 26 sculptures.
• On the open-air Promenade, which encircles the ship from stern to bow on Deck 5, Roberto Bixio’s two large glass mosaics titled “Riviera Ligure” showcase imagery from the Mediterranean coasts on both port and starboard sides, covering a total area of 1,442 square feet.

Italian artists who worked on the Costa Diadema project include Piero Addis, Andy, Davide Avogadro, Bixio, Manuela Carrano, Casagrande & Recalcati, Cuoghi, Marco Dezzi Bardeschi, Donizetti, Titti Garelli, Girardello, Eloisa Gobbo, Marco Grassi, Riccardo Gusmaroli, Cristina Iotti, Vittorio Locatelli and Carlo Ninchi, Tiziana Lorenzelli, Flavio Lucchini, Francesca Marzorati, Francesco Merletti, Alberto Nodolini, Matteo Piazza, Annalisa Pirovano, Prestinari, Elisa Rossi, Savelli, Luisa Valentini, Antonella Piro, Virgilio Rospigliosi, Augusto Vignali and Toni Zanussi. 

Artists from outside Italy include Roger de Montebello and Nathalie du Pasquier from France, and the Hungarian-American Havadtoy.

The 132,500-ton Costa Diadema is being built at Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera, Italy, at a cost of US$745 million. 

Beginning Nov. 29 and for the rest of the 2014-15 winter season and through summer 2015, Costa Diadema will depart Savona, Italy, on seven-night western Mediterranean cruises calling weekly at Marseille, France; Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, Spain; and Naples and La Spezia, Italy.