PIETRA DURA TABLETOP. MARBLE AND HARDSTONES.

Rectangular table top with marbles and hard stones. Inspired by Italian models from the 16th-17th centuries. The vein of a specific stone has been highlighted by placing it in the center and surrounded by a necklace with round and rhomboidal beads. Around it, a decoration based on vegetal scrolls with flowers stands out, with a marked classicist inspiration. To complete the composition, without taking away the central area's prominence, the outer band shows a series of empty mirrors inside cartouches that recall those used in the Renaissance. The technique is very similar to inlay, but uses marbles and hard stones (more than 7 on the Mohs scale) to make these designs. Desks, boards and other objects were made with “hard stone work.” Usually, lapis lazuli was used along with Belgian marble in the background, accompanied by jade, chalcedony, etc. The price of the material and that of specialized labor raised the cost of this type of work of art so much that its recipients were only the main houses and courts of the time, which is why today they are only preserved in prominent private collections and in important museums. Piero de Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent who began to support a series of works in Florence to recover, with thematic and technical changes, the Roman mosaic technique called “opus sectile”. It is during this period that the greatest decorative variety was produced, because, starting around 1600, it was the naturalistic motifs that ended up prevailing. Over the years, birds, parrots, laces, pearls, etc. were also added. The work of hard stones was so successful that, since the 17th century, a series of workshops were created in Europe that continued this tradition, among which the Gobelin Factory in France, the Royal Workshop of Naples and the factory of El Good Retreat in Madrid. Compare the present board with other masterpieces: the “Duke of Osuna Board” (O00501) made in 1614 and preserved in the Prado Museum in Madrid, has a band on the outside that is reminiscent of this one; The vein of the stone also stands out in its central area on the “Farnese Table” of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (58.57 ad); and some preserved in the Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence.

· Size: 180x120 cms.