This portrayal of the Tazza d’Adrianna which is in the Uffizi Gallery museum in Florence, Italy, was created by a known artist and is signed in the black slate Alfredo Buccioni.
“Bottega del mosaico operates in the handcrafting process of mosaics and inlays made of natural hard stones, known as "Commesso Fiorentino" and also as "Pittura di Pietra". Exclusive Florentine art started in the fifteenth century at the Medici court under Ferdinand, Duke of Florence. Handed down until now thanks to the Handicraft workshops, and to family tradition. The high quality of the products from the workshop are entirely hand-made, and find their origin in the skill and experience of Alfredo Buccioni who started his mosaics career in 1947.”
Pietra dura (or Hard Stone) is an art that flourished in Florence, Italy, particularly in the late 16th and 17th centuries and involved the fashioning of highly illusionistic pictures out of cut-to-shape pieces of colored stone.
The technique of pietra dura is highly prized and widely used, and can be found in settings ranging from antique jewelry boxes to the walls of the Taj Mahal.
The development of the technique – often called ‘painting in stone’ – was one of the many achievements of the Florentine Renaissance, and has produced some particularly spectacular pieces.
Pietra dura is valued for its ability to combine luxurious materials in novel ways. It is a famously difficult skill to do well and lies somewhere between the arts of sculpture, inlay, and mosaic.
Image size: 10 inch by 12 inch
Frame size: 14.25 inch by 16.5 inch