Pietra Dura Giovanni Montelatici Start Price USD 56,500.00 Current Price USD 56,500.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price USD 60,000.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, October 08, 2008 End Time Saturday, October 18, 2008 Location Budapest, Magyarország See more about 'Pietra Dura Giovanni Montelatici' Description Giovanni Montelatici (?-1930), early 20th century: Grandmother with her grandchild Pietra dura (commesso in pietro dure) on shale plate, 11.5 x 8.7 inch indicated bottom right: G. Montelatici (ligature initials)   The piece of art was made by a very rare so called (Florence mosaic) technique at the beginning of the 20th century. The coloured marble and gem mosaics are glued on a shale plate. The picture was framed with black marble in a surrounding manner. The scene depicted – grandmother with her grandchild inside a room – suits well the traditional topics of painting genres in Italy in the 19th century.   The technique pietra dura comes from Italy. “It was the centre of producing it for centuries and the only manufacture still carrying out the tradition can also be found in Florence. The Italian name (commesso in pietro dure) means hard stones (minerals) placed beside each other i.e. unified. The Florence mosaic is made by cutting forms from the 2-5 mm thick minerals mentioned above that match the colour patches and then these are placed beside each other to form the coloured surface that will be fixed with glues and placed into the hollow places of the stone slate - e.g. marble – created for this purpose. When the surface is ready, the entire of it is polished.” (cited from Ágnes Prékopa: from the article titled “Decorating the most expensive furniture of the world – The pietra dura”, Published: Műértő (Connoisseur), January 2005)   Giovanni Montelatici (?- 1930) worked in Florence. At the beginning of the 20th century he revived the pietra dura technique that had been popular in Italy since the 16th century but way almost completely forgotten by the mid 19th century. Montelatici worked together with Galileo Chini from 1898. He exhibited a big size picture depicting angels’ greetings together with Chini at the Paris World Fair in 1900. This piece was awarded a golden medal. After the success in Paris Montelatici opened a big workshop in Florence enjoying great popularity even among foreign buyers with its genre scenes depicting family joy and rural life. The piece of art is in very good condition. Place a Bid!