User:Russ McGinn/Opificio delle pietre dure

File:Cappelle Medicee, mosaico in pietre dure 1.JPG

Pietre dure work for the Medici Chapel of Princes in the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze.

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laborati di Restauro literally meaning Workshop for Semi-precious Stones and Laboratory for Restoration is an autonomous institute of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage based in Via Alfani in Florence. It is a global leader in the field of art restoration and provides teaching as one of two Italian state conservation schools (the other being the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro). The institute maintains a specialist library and archive of conservation and also a museum displaying historic examples of Pietre dure inlaid semi-precious stone decoration. A laboratory conducts research and diagnostics and provides a public climatology service.

Origins and early history

The workshops have their origins in the Italian renaissance. They were established in 1588 at the behest of Ferdinando I de' Medici to provide the elaborate, inlaid precious and semi-precious stonework, in the Cappella dei Principi (Chapel of Princes) in the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze. The technique, which originated from Byzantine mosaic, was perfected by the workshops and the artworks it produced became known as "opere di commessi Medici" ("Works of the Medici commisariat") and later as pietra dura.

The artisans, known as commessi, performed the exceptionally skilled and delicate task of inlaying thin veneers of semi-precious stones especially selected for their colour, opacity, brilliance and grain to create elaborate decorative and pictorial effects. Items of extraordinary refinement were created in this way, from furnishings to all manner of artworks. Today, the artisans trained at the Opificio assist many of the world's museums in their restoration programmes.

The workshops were originally located in the Casino Mediceo, then in the Uffizi and were finally moved to their present location in Via Alfani in 1796. After the end of the 19th Century the insitute's activities moved away from manufacture and towards the restoration of works of art. At first specialising in lapidary, in which it was a world authority, and then later in other fields.

Recent History

The tragic flooding of the River Arno in 1966, resulted in many priceless works of art requiring restoration and provided a significant impetus for an expansion of the intitute's research and restorative services. More space was needed because of the sheer number of artworks which required work and also, in some cases, the sheer size of the pieces themselves, such as the immense 4.48 x 3.9m painting of the crucifixion by Cimabue from the Basilica di Santa Croce. So new workshops and laboratories were opened in the Fortezza da Basso. Thanks to aid and an influx of restorers from throught the world, the Florentine institute is today at the vanguard of restoration, combining traditional practices with modern technology.

In 1975, the Cultural Heritage Ministry consolidated all of the restoration workshops in Florence under the control of the Opificio.

Today, the institute is organised in departments that correspond to various types of artworks. It also has a school of restoration, a museum and a library. The principal workshops are still located at 78 Via Alfani in the historic centre of Florence with two additional workshops, one located in the Fortezza da Basso which accomodates large works, and the other, near the Palazzo Vecchio where work on tapestries and textiles is carried out. All work is carried out under the supervision of Dr. Cristina Acidini.

Departments

• Tapestries and carpets
• Archaeology
• Bronzes and ancient weapons
• Painted furnishings
• Painted murals
• Parchment and paper
• Stonework
• Pietra dure
• Jewellery
• Wood carving
• Terracotta
• Textiles

Museum

The small museum in the Via Alfani displays examples of pietra dure work, including cabinets, small tables, plates and several inlaid nameplates, with an immense repertoir of decorations, generally with flowers, fruits and animals, but also other pictorial scenes, including a famous view of the Piazza della Signoria. Some works that they hit particularly are the great baroque malachite fireplace entire reconsideration , of a dazzling/brilliant green, and the copies of pictures performed in inlay, with a shine and sometimes greater beauty of next originates them on burlap exposed.

Alcune opere che copliscono particolarmente ci sono il grande caminetto barocco interamente ricorperto di malachite, di un verde smagliante, e le copie di quadri eseguiti ad intarsio, con una lucentezza e bellezza a volte maggiore degli originali su tela esposti accanto.

Some spaces are dedicate to you to particular stones, like the stone paesina , extracted close to Florence, whose layers of various colors, if seziona you opportunely, give the illusion of a painted landscape rocciosio.

markings of warm brown colour which are seen on slabs of " ruin marble " Florence—a stone occasionally known also as landscape stone, or pietra paesina

Alcuni spazi sono dedicati a pietre particolari, come la pietra paesina, estratta vicino a Firenze, i cui strati di colori diversi, se sezionati opportunamente, danno l'illusione di un paesaggio rocciosio dipinto.

To the first one they are slowly exposed to the instruments for the inlay and a collection of samples of pietre dure going back to the age of the Medici. In the last one it knows are exposed it is gone and ornaments decorated in Art Nouveau of first of the 1900's, between which the table top with harp and garland by Giuseppe Zocchi (1749) and that one with flowers and birds of Niccolò Betti (1855).

Al primo piano sono esposti gli strumenti per l'intarsio ed un campionario completo delle pietre dure risalente all'epoca dei Medici. Nell'ultima sala sono esposti vasi e suppellettili decorate in stile liberty dei primi del Novecento, fra le quali il piano di tavolo con arpa e ghirlande di Emilio Zocchi (1849) e quello con fiori e uccelli di Niccolò Betti (1855).

References

• Museum website
• Official website

External links

• Italian Ministry of Culture (Italian)
• The Museums of Florence