Scagliola and Pietre Dure...

Walter Cipriani photo

Scagliola is a technique that imitates semi precious inlay of marbles and minerals through the use of pigmented plasters.

Walter Cipriani photo

This process is best known through the Medici family in Florence, Italy in the 17th century.

Walter Cipriani photo

Contemporary Italian artist Walter Cipriani is keeping the process alive! Here, he shows the act of creating the colors and designs for a scagliola piece.

Walter Cipriani photo

A base form is made in the shape desired and then a design is drawn on the surface and the carving of the inlay is begun.

Walter Cipriani photo

Colored plasters are placed in the carved designs and then polished many times to achieve the look of marble.

Walter Cipriani photo

Finished designs were usually very elaborate using scrolls , foliage and ornamentation .

Florence, Italy

Last year, I visited the Pietre Dure museum in Florence, Italy to study it's decorative technique.

Pietre dure is what scagliola imitates. Pietre dure uses real minerals and stones to produce elaborate designs and ornamentation.

Firenze is still synonymous with the production of both scagliola and pietre dure.

These paintings are produced entirely from inlay work of precious stones.

The illusion is amazing....shading and depth are achieved strictly through the use of minerals.

There are four main rooms of pietre dure designs on table tops, wall panels and other objects in the museum.

This is one of the first areas as you enter the museum.

One way to tell the difference in scagliola and pietre dure is by touch...the inlaid stone of pietre dure will be cold to the touch and scagliola will be warm since it originates from plasters.

You can purchase scagliola pieces from artists in Florence... although these labor intensive pieces are not cheap, they are investments in a centuries old art technique that was good enough for the Medicis!