VIBRANT ITALIAN STONE ART - "PIETRA DURA", MADE IN ITALY, ARTIST'S SIGNATURE ON BOTTOM LEFT HAND CORNER "A. BUCCIONI" - ALFREDO BUCCIONI, ONE OF A KIND PIECE OF ART

Pietra Dura is decorative art form, using inlay techniques of cutting and fitting, highly polished coloured stones to create pictures. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections; and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible". Stability was achieved by grooving the undersides of the stones so that they interlocked, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, with everything held tautly in place by an encircling 'frame'. Many different colored stones, particularly marbles, were used, along with semiprecious, and even precious stones, It first appeared in Rome in the 16th century, reaching its full maturity in Florence.

MEASURES 18CM BY 16CM WITH FRAME AND 10CM BY 7CM EXCLUDING FRAME.