L'arte delle pietre dure da Firenze all'Europa

This fine in-depth work by Anna Maria Giusti, director of the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, studies and discusses the art of the use of semiprecious stones in interior decoration and furniture from the 16th to the 19th century, analysing the refined elegance and finesse of a production which has always exercised fascination in the Italian and European artistic panorama, enchanting benefactors and collectors over the centuries. Following a brief but exhaustive history of the art from ancient times to the Middle Ages, the author begins her analysis in 16th-century Rome, where the new mosaic technique which used semiprecious stones in the creation of architectonic ornaments and furnishings became more and more widely used among the rich and noble, gradually spreading to aristocratic courts throughout Italy. It was in fact in Florence, under the Medicis, that mosaic production was perfected, reaching its peak during the reign of Ferdinando I de' Medici who, in 1588, founded the Opicifio delle Pietre Dure. The success of Florentine production led, in the 17th century, to the foundation and development of similar royal laboratories such as that of the Habsburgs in Prague and of Louis XIV in France and, in the 18th century, with the revival of the international prestige of the Florentine Opificio under the Lorraines, to that of Carlo of Bourbon in Naples and Madrid and of Catherine II in Russia. The work, which is beautifully illustrated in full-colour, concludes with the situation in the second half of the 19th century when the activity of the Opificio delle pietre dure changed from artistic production to restoration.