Italian mosaic - Florentine "stone painting"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Mosaic is the art of decorating furniture and architectural elements inside and outside a building using separate elements of different nature, shape and size, known since a very long time.

There are several species, usually named according to time and place of origin. Roman, Byzantine, Old Russian, French mosaics are known. Florentine differs not only in the specific place of origin of this art, but also in technological features.

History

The first examples of mosaics using natural stones date back to the fifth century BC. The decorative qualities of the stone, its strength, the ability to maintain its original appearance for a long time have always attracted people. The best decorative qualities of this material are revealed by the mosaic. Florentine "stone painting" is one of the highest stages of such art. This method of decoration originated, most likely, in the Middle East, inturn of our era, but he received the name after the famous Tuscan city.

At the end of the 16th century, several stone-cutting studios were formed in Florence, in which masters invited from Milan worked. These workshops were created under the auspices of the famous Medici family clan, which then ruled in Florence. Representatives of this we althy family have long collected the best examples of ancient art, and the technology of facing the surface with thin plates of semi-precious stones arose largely from the need to restore and restore outstanding examples of applied art from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

Commesso

The art of creating pictures from stone, which arose in the cradle of the Renaissance, is called commesso in Italian - "rallying". It involves a particularly precise fit of the parts that make up the mosaic. The Florentine painting is assembled from thin stone plates in such a way that it is impossible to notice a seam between the elements. At the same time, the stone plate is selected based not only on the desired color, but also taking into account the natural texture. For example, for a leaf of a tree, a material is chosen that imitates not only green, but also contains a suitable pattern of small veins, leaf bend, etc., for the image of fur, it is necessary that the direction of the “villi” coincide, etc.

In this sense, pietra dura (literally "hard stone") is another name for this art, similar to intarsia - inlay fromvarious types of wood. A wood veneer image set is also a mosaic. Florentine inlay of semi-precious stones is much more labor intensive and almost unlimited in time, the durability of the result.

Technological process as art

Among the many tourists who come to Florence, excursions are very popular, including visits to famous workshops where Florentine mosaics are made. For 200 € per group, you can see with your own eyes how real masterpieces of decorative art are born.

At the same time, the work is done with the help of authentic tools and devices that were used by the masters of the 16th century, when this mosaic appeared. Photos of mosaic masters at work adorn the websites of numerous travel companies and travel reports of tourists from all over the world. After that, you can admire the stone paintings made by masters of the distant past, which decorate many cathedrals and palaces of Florence, in particular the famous Medici Chapel.

Stone painting colors

The palette used by artists who create masterpieces of Florentine mosaics is not inferior in color and texture to that available to traditional painters:

1. Lapis Lazuli is a rich shade of blue with white grains and sparkling golden pyrite crystals.
2. Malachite - alternating stripes of delicate and intense greenery.
3. Marble - spectacularstreaked in various shades of yellow, brown, red and green.
4. Semi-precious stones: agate, jasper, onyx, porphyry - are a huge variety of striped, circular, clear and blurry textures, painted in various warm or cold colors, dense or having a subtle nuance character.

With the help of these paints, a genuine Florentine mosaic is created. The photo cannot convey its true beauty, because the photograph cannot convey the depth that is revealed when polishing the stone, the play of light on the smallest crystalline inclusions. Among the poetic artists who have reached the pinnacle of mastery in this complex craft, there is a belief that when they use the unique patterns created by nature in their compositions, the true beauty of the world created by God's will becomes available to them.

How is it done?

Creating a small decorative insert for a small box or a huge decorative panel starts with a life-size full-color sketch. Large compositions are divided into small sections for convenience. The drawing is either cut along the lines into separate elements, or transferred to the stone with the help of tracing paper after the patient search for the workpiece of the desired color and texture is over. The contour is made with the necessary margin for processing joints.

Stone plates with a thickness of 2-3 mm are the starting material from which the Florentine mosaic is made. Manual workpiece processingchanges over many centuries. The plate with the contour applied is clamped in a vice, and the desired part is sawn out using a special saw. It looks like a tight bow made from a branch of a tree (usually a chestnut or cherry) with a thin metal wire-bowstring. In the process of sawing through a stone plate, a special abrasive paste is constantly applied to the wire (previously it was just a mixture of water and sand).

Then follows a careful adjustment of the individual details of the picture to each other. The result is considered achieved if the seam is not visible even through the light. The complexity of this stage can be imagined by looking at a mosaic depicting, for example, thin grape tendrils. The finished composition is glued to the base (in an authentic process - with the help of wood resins) and carefully polished.

Eternal beauty

Italian mosaic reached its peak of popularity in the 17th-18th centuries. Furniture, paintings and entire walls decorated in this technique amazed people all over Europe with their exquisite and unfading beauty. Masters of Florentine mosaic appeared in many countries, including Russia. The greatest masterpiece created with the help of stone inlay is the famous Amber Room.

Today, the latest technologies and modern materials are used to make “stone painting”. Individual pieces are often cut with a computer-controlled laser. But even in this case, the Florentine mosaic remains a very laborious and expensive way of decorating. Creations of craftsmen working in traditionalhandmade technique, are valued at the level of the originals of classical painting.