Italian decorative arts

Decorative arts is the home for Italian objects that are not already a ceramic, a textile or a piece of case furniture, but that still come from a specialist workshop. Florentine pietra dura, scagliola from Carpi and Tuscany, painted fans, and small cabinet panels cut in hardstone all ask for a reading of the material. Pietra dura is stone, piece against piece, with a drawing that should survive a close look at the joints. Scagliola is a plaster composition polished to imitate marble, and the cracks and the ground give it away. A fan is a leaf and a monture that need to be the same date. The articles here concentrate on how the surface was made and on the later revival that copied it with coarser joints, printed patterns or a mount that does not match.

10 articles