Pietra Dura: Painting in Stone

June 5, 2020 7:06 AM

"Though it’s today one of the lesser-known ‘decorative arts’, the technique of pietra dura is highly prized and widely used, and can be found in settings ranging from antique jewellery boxes to the walls of the Taj Mahal."

An assortment of other links on the subject:

- The Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence is a museum devoted to the art.

- The 'Pietra Dura Zimmer' a room at the Wiener Hofburg - the Vienna Imperial Palace which houses some spectacular examples (even if, like me, you can't read the German text, there are some beautiful pictures).

- Some modern Pietra Dura pieces by Thomas Greenaway: Lapwing; Koi Carp.

- A Pietra Dura landscape scene from the New York Met Museum's collection. And a grandly elaborate table-top, also at the Met.

- Another extravagant table-top - this time in Liechtenstein.

- Some examples of Pietra Dura / Parchin Kari marble inlay work at the Taj Mahal.

- Pietra Dura, parchin kari, jali and the Taj Mahal: a blog-post by (MeFi's own) nickyskye.

- Hamra Abbas - a contemporary Kuwaiti artist working with Parchin Kari techniques.

posted by misteraitch (8 comments total)

Oh, lovely. I've seen a lot of these pieces in museums but never made the connection it was all one technique. Also didn't connect the decorations at the Taj Mahal to that of Europe. According to the article the Mughals in India imported the technique from Florence and then made it their own. I was astonished at how much intellectual commerce there was between India and Europe, going back 500 years. (Or 2000 years, if you look at the influence of Greece.)

I wonder if modern laser cutting or water jet cutting would make it easier to do pietra dura. Most kinds of stone won't be harmed by the cutting process (unlike wood, which is trickier). And of course the precision you get is amazing.

Hoping Cortex chimes in with his stained glass expertise. Is the cutting more or less the same? Stained glass is set in a frame, though, which gives you some slop.
posted by Nelson at 7:45 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gorgeous. Thank you.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 7:52 AM on June 5, 2020

When you visit Agra to tour the Taj Mahal (I've ben lucky enough to visit twice), you'll exit into a street that is filled with a number of gift-shops/tourist type of stores (I believe they're officially licensed by the city and tightly controlled) and the pietra dura is one of the most popular items on display.

The tough part is keeping something like that safe and transporting it back home. I saw a lovely chess-set in the same style the last time I was there, but the price-point was a bit much for my wallet.
posted by Fizz at 8:11 AM on June 5, 2020

Wow, the pietra dura works by Giovanni Montelatici are unbelievable. If you do an image search on his name, then select large images 3 or 4 K in size, you can really zoom in and see the individual pieces of stone. I had to do that to believe they weren't paintings!
posted by jabah at 8:21 AM on June 5, 2020

Wow! These are astonishing.

Every link I clicked as I browsed this post, I thought 'This is my favourite link so far, I'm going to mention it in the thread!' At this point, I would be rehashing the post to mention them all.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:41 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

These are really exquisite objects.

I have to wonder at the suggestion that the technique spread from Florence to India. Note the dates in its own statements:

It was in 1588 that the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici founded the Galleria dei Layori, perhaps the first workshop in Europe to specialise in hardstone carving.

Indian parchinkari work again was mostly used in architectural rather than decorative settings: one early examples is the famous Tomb of the Emperor Humayun (1508-1556) in Delhi, which was completed in 1569-70.

posted by zompist at 3:12 PM on June 5, 2020

@Nelson, yes, water jet cutting would make it easier. When I was redoing my kitchen, I thought about having custom-cut stone for the backsplash. I designed a pattern that I thought would be lovely, but when I looked at it tiled, my eyes started to bleed. So I went with tile instead. But anyway the guy at one of the stores on 22nd Street said that I could have any stone he sold cut to any shape I liked. So maybe if I redo my bathroom, I'll do pietra dura for the floor or something.
posted by novalis_dt at 4:35 PM on June 5, 2020

@Zompist: the first workshop spcialising in hardstone carving does not mean it was the first workshop to *do* hardstone carving ... just the first to focus on it primarily.

This is some beautiful work. Got myself a small marble inlaid ashtray from Agra ... wanted the large chessboard table, but, yeah, a bit expensive, plus shipping :)
posted by MacD at 9:01 AM on June 6, 2020