Masterpieces “Painted” With Stones

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN ITALY

OF ALL the techniques artists have used to reproduce scenes of nature, the technique often called Florentine mosaic, or commesso, is one of the most demanding. This form of mosaic work, typical to Florence, Italy, does not use regularly shaped pieces of stone, tile, or glass to form a design the way many other mosaics do. Rather, artists fashion pictures out of thin, irregularly shaped slices of stone. These are often cut so accurately that the joints between them are practically invisible.

The variety of ready-made colors on the palette of the artist who “paints” with stone is astonishing. Lapis lazuli is a rich azure stone with white markings, glittering with crystals of golden pyrite. Malachite has bands of delicate and intense green. Spectacularly veined marble comes in various shades of yellow, brown, green, and red. Agate, jasper, onyx, porphyry, and other stones present a spectrum of vivid shades and speckles, the nuances of which artists exploit to create masterpieces. They use the colors and veining of these stones to represent rocky landscapes, vegetation, rough water, or even skies with wandering clouds.

This type of mosaic is by no means new. Likely invented in the Near East, it reached Rome by the first century B.C.E. and became popular for floor and wall decoration. Though the Florentine mosaic technique was widely used in medieval and Byzantine times, the Tuscan city of Florence won it a celebrated name from the 16th century on. To this day, prestigious masterpieces in Florentine mosaic are found in palaces and museums throughout Europe.

“Painting” with stone is a laborious process. One source notes that the hours dedicated  to “even a simple work would horrify a modern, industrial time-analyst.” Hence today, as in the past, the prices artists ask for their works set these mosaics way beyond the reach of most people.

How Are They Made?

A new mosaic begins with a model, typically a painting. A tracing of it is cut into pieces, each corresponding to a section of the finished work. When an artist patiently chooses the right stone for each section, he is interpreting​—not necessarily imitating—​his model. Each section of the tracing is glued to the stone slice that is selected.

The artist next holds each slice, which is less than an eighth of an inch [two to three millimeters] thick, in a vice. Then, using a saw​—an iron wire held in tension by a chestnut-wood bow—​he meticulously cuts the pieces he needs (shown above). As he does this, he moistens the wire with an abrasive paste. He then has to file the pieces so precisely that when he holds them up together, he sees no light passing through the joints. Imagine how difficult this would be when the sections represent the slender tendrils of a vine!

After the pieces are assembled and permanently stuck to a slate backing sheet, a final leveling and polishing of the stone surface confers upon the picture such a brilliance that photographs fail to do it justice. The skill with which artists exploit the color tones of a single piece of stone to attain realistic effects of light and shade on fragile flower petals is truly astonishing. Fruits, vases, butterflies, birds, and landscapes are just some of the subjects that imaginative artists have tackled successfully.

One of the fascinations of Florentine mosaic is that the artist cannot determine the exact details of his design. Instead, he has to choose colors, textures, and stones that God has already created. One source on the subject states: “In noble stones you can contemplate the grandeur and unspeakable power of God, who unites in such tiny bodies the beauty of the entire world . . . , and thus you constantly have before your eyes a certain reflection and sparkle of the divine.”

[Picture Credit Line on page 16]

All photos pages 16 & 17: Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali-Opificio delle Pietre Dure di Firenze, Archivio Fotografico