Pietra dura, meaning hard stone in Italian, is a decorative technique in which thin, precisely cut and polished pieces of coloured stone are fitted together to create pictures or patterns, usually set into a background of black or white marble. The pieces are shaped so accurately that the joins are almost invisible.
The technique was perfected in Florence in the late sixteenth century under the patronage of the Medici, whose grand ducal workshops produced spectacular table tops, cabinets and panels using stones such as lapis lazuli, agate, jasper, chalcedony and malachite. Typical subjects include flowers, fruit, birds and landscapes. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Florentine workshops supplied plaques and table tops to Grand Tour visitors, and many found their way into English country houses, often mounted into cabinets made locally. Similar work was produced in Naples and, in a different tradition, in Mughal India, most famously on the Taj Mahal. Collectors look for fine cutting, a range of rare stones, crisp polishing and the absence of cracks or replaced pieces. Pietra dura is distinct from scagliola, which imitates inlaid stone using coloured plaster.
