| Description
A hardstone plaque depicting a genre scene of a monk, two elderly
men, a young woman, and various animals returning home from the
market in a snowstorm.
An inscription on the back reads:
1928 ESEGUITO
DA
MANO MONTELATICI
DI GIOVANNI ARTE MUSIVA
FIRENZE.
Commentary
As the inscription indicates, this work was made at the Arte Musiva
in Florence by Mario Montelatici, son of Giovanni Montelatici, who
was one of the most influential of the Florentine mosaicists. The
subject is derived from a painting by Stefano Bruzzi (1835-1911)
that received a prize in the Parma Exhibition of 1888 (now in the
Bruzzi Family Collection, Piacenza).
This hardstone plaque is one of the most
spectacular pictures made by Mario Montelatici, who exploited the
mimetic potential of Tuscan marbles and hardstones. The grey slab
of bardigho marble with white veins realistically imitates the stormy
sky, while the fine, white Carrara marble gives a wonderful effect
of snow on the street. The other Tuscan stones - onyx, gabbro, and
albarese limestone - are finely cut and fitted together to form
a hardstone micromosaic, typical of this artist, giving the details
of the figures and landscape as well as his characteristic light
and shadow effects.
The work was part of a commission submitted
to the Florentine workshop, Arte del Mosaico, by the American heiress
and art patron Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1927 for Mar a Lago,
her estate at Palm Beach, Florida. Other objects commissioned were
a round centre table, and a large table inlaid
in marbles and hardstones for the villa's dining room.
back to the
collection
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the
Gilbert silver