Marte Arte
Battistoni (1990)

Marte Arte is one of the remarkable Battistoni Roma's s creations. It is definitely one of the greenest/grassiest creations I know. This fragrance smells about wet grass, jade, cool winter morning's air inside a high mountain forest, bitter-sticky leafiness and moldy underbrush. It was created and issued on the market after his more famous, sophisticated and appreciated brother Marte (I don't know exactly the year, probably at the beginning of the 90's). Classic yet modern, Marte Arte is a smoothly grassy-musky-cedary wet floral concoction. Florals are bitter leafy, sharp and grassy. This is a quite botanical leafy/rooty fragrance with a sort of humid/wet texture smelling about leafiness, resins and undergrowth. The main accord of violet leaves, aromatics, florals, citrus, patchouli, botanical elements, woods and synth ambergris unfolds by soon a sort of "greener Dior Fahrenheit ideally deprived from the gasoline's feel" vibe (something ideally smelling as Dior Fahrenheit would encounter vintage Krizia Uomo, in to a nutshell wet violet + grassiness and woods). Arte is the classic Marte's country cousin (bucolic and somewhat antisocial), a parent loving the forest over the mundane urban social venues. Battistoni Marte Arte is a distinguished (softly grassy-soapy and woody fresh) modern chypré with an artistic ostensibly figgy-musky aura, a floral core and a modern aroma (initially earthy/grassy and finally smoothly cedary-musky and damp/silvan). Violet leaves (damp and leafy-bitter) and cedarwood are two key notes (partially paired by musk and woody-figgy soapiness), alongside a well calibrated dry pepper and a final ambergris. There is a sort of Floris-like british slighly victorian (evoking the british countryside) atmosphere all around (Floris Royal Arms Diamond Edition jumps more than vaguely on mind with its damp botanical leafy grassiness and its wonderful musky-leafy-citric violet). Dry down is virile, woody, aromatic and spicy (due to pepper and ambergris), almost incensey (I'd say smelling about acid grass, penci shavings cedarwood, fir resins and rootiness). The juice is indeed (initially) highly herbal and rooty (it could be too much for many), there is gradually a sort of nutty mysterious feel around which is musky/herbal and with a violet leave's secret undertone. An universe of nuances envelops the wearer which elicits a really classic, optimistic, peaceful and artistic vibe all around, a sort of virile (pepper, ambergris, woods and patchouli) and haute couture scent (despite its wild nature). The aroma of a fresh countryside early winter morning (in the same league as the great vintage Penhaligon's English Fern, something sitting somewhere between the former, Floris Royal Arms Diamond Edition, Morph Animal and Krizia Uomo). Really a precious gem very hard to find around nowadays. A cedary (vaguely pencil shavings) soapy final aroma smells kind of ostensibly figgy-damp (and generally soapy-grassy-fruity) on my skin. I appreciate Arte almost as I appreciate my favorire classic Marte (blue/golden box). Friends, purchase these great classics if you can retrieve the fragrances somewhere (unfortunately I suppose it is really hard to pick up a bottle of these fragrances out of Italy).