Very vague and beautiful colored stones: in Mantua works of art made with the technique of commesso

At the Castle of San Giorgio in Mantua, part of the city’s Palazzo Ducale Museum Complex, the exhibition"Very Vague and Beautiful Colored Stones. Timeless Art from the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure."

On display are works made with the artistic technique called"commesso," through which images are created, based on a pictorial model, by assembling small sections of colored stones, such as porphyry, jaspers, agates, and lapis lazuli. One can admire the painting"The Allegory of the Earth" made by Giuseppe Zocchi in 1750 and its transposition into stone made in 1752 by the Grand Ducal Manufactory on commission from Emperor Franz Stephan of Lorraine, now preserved at the Hofburg Complex in Vienna.

Also on display to the public for the first time is the modern transposition of the Allegory of the Earth in semi-precious stone commesso, created by the Laboratory of the Mosaic and semi-precious stone commesso Sector of theOpificio delle Pietre Dure: an exception in the Opificio’s usual activity, which nowadays deals with the restoration of works of art.

On display are some sheets belonging to the graphic heritage of the Manifattura Granducale, established by Ferdinando I de’ Medici in 1588: a collection preserved in the Drawings and Prints Cabinet of the Opificio Museum.

Very Vague and Beautiful Colored Stones. Timeless Art from the Museum of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure is curated by Sandra Rossi, Peter Assmann and Anna Patera, with the scientific collaboration of Riccardo Gennaioli, and is part of the initiatives organized for theEuropean Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

For info: www.mantovaducale.beniculturali.it

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 8:15 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Tickets: Full 12 euros, reduced 7.50 euros.

Image: Grand Ducal Manufactory (based on a model by Giuseppe Zocchi), Allegory of the Earth (1750; semiprecious stone commesso; Vienna, Hofburg)

Very vague and beautiful colored stones: in Mantua works of art made with the technique of commesso

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