OPUS SECTILE in marble, HARD STONE PLATE The player of Zampogna. Ancient work, probably Florentine. Height. 14.3 Width. 10 cm. Provenance : private collection, Orléans. The player of Zampogna, a Florentine hard stone marquetry plate. The zampogna is...

OPUS SECTILE in marble, HARD STONE PLATE The player of Zampogna. Ancient work, probably Florentine. Height. 14.3 Width. 10 cm. Provenance : private collection, Orléans. The player of Zampogna, a Florentine hard stone marquetry plate. The zampogna is an antique musical instrument of the bagpipe family. Typically Italian, it is represented on this plate by a rare work of opus sectile or "commesso fiorentino" also called Florentine mosaic. The "Florentine mosaic" appears during the Renaissance, luxuriously including many hard stones of bright colors, such as: lapis lazuli, cornelian, amethyst, agate... This technique of inserting semi-precious stones was encouraged in the 16th century by the Medici and was perfected over the centuries with the creation, in 1588, of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure by Grand Duke Ferdinand I de Medici. The drawings, flowers, landscapes and figures are created using pieces of coloured stone, assembled one beside the other, until they achieve a particular chromatic effect, similar to a painting, as defined by Vasari in 1550. The term commisso comes from the Latin "committere", meaning "to join" pieces of stone cut with a wire according to an initial design. Starting from a cardboard made up of sections serving as a composition, the various pieces are glued onto a rigid support and then polished. This Florentine model was later used by the famous Prague Manufactories at the request of Rudolph II of Habsburg, and by the Gobelins at the instigation of Louis XIV in 1668. At the end of the 17th century, the Corbarelli, an important family of Florentine semi-precious stone markers who worked in Brescia, Padua, Vicenza, Modena and Mantua, introduced the art of commisso alla fiorentina into the sacred architecture of altar decoration. They are the ones responsible for the decoration of the altar of the church of San Domenico in Brescia, which has now disappeared. Other sculptors from Brescia also became masters in this technique, especially those of the Gamba family. Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.