FLORENCE Until the 19th.II.2001 Odd painted stones from Medici’s collections Museo dell’opificio delle pietre dure

Why do artists between the XVIth and the XVIIth century try and paint on stone? Maybe it is because of the willing of working on an “eternal” material… A material that doesn’t collapse as wood or canvas.
But also this prospect reveals to be an illusion: parts of pigments have in facts fallen off the stones.But surely another important reason to paint on stone is to reveal secret connections between art and nature. In that century artists liked to explore odd techniques to astonish and delight their patrons and buyers, which were often princes.
Many important artists of the time paint on stone: Jacques Stella, Filippo Napoletano and Stefano della Bella, l’Orbetto and Cornelius van Poelemburgh. Some works of this artists are on display in Florence: there we can observe nice works coming from Italy, and especially from the Medici’s court, and also coming from France and Holland.
In every work the relationship between painting and stone is very important: different kinds of stone suggest different subjects, colours and techniques, so that artists are guided in their experimentations, getting to results which seem very modern to our eyes.

English version by Simona Piselli