Painting with stone

Antonio Tempesta and Filippo Napoletano were the most prolific authors of works «made by nature and helped by the brush». Among their favorite supports was the pietra paesina, that is large pebbles from the Arno Valley that can show waverly or fractured patterns when cut by an expert. In Ruggero freeing Angelica by the Sea-monster by Filippo Napoletano, where the naked beauty is chained to the rock, both typologies of the “paesina” can be observed. In the Capture of Jerusalem by Tempesta, the tiniest brushstrokes transform the stone patterns into the image of a city.  The artist exploits the colour of the brecciated limestone to represent the Red Sea in the painting from Budapest and the manganese inclusions of the dendritic stone to render foliage and trees in the Hunts from Vienna.  «Paintings» made exclusively with inlays of semi-precious stones were in fashion in Florence, especially at the court of Ferdinand I de’ Medici who founded the Galleria dei Lavori (now Opificio delle Pietre Dure) to produce these kinds of objects. The beautiful Red Cardinal in all likelihood was a gift from the Medici court to cardinal Scipione Borghese, with an intended pun. Images like these, sometimes made with exotic stones, enjoyed a wide international circulation.

Paintings on stone could be hung with other pictures, or in cabinets of curiosities, but were also placed on tables or in boxes, suggesting their frequent handling by viewers in order to be closely observed.

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