Tuscan Landscape

Ferdinando I de’ Medici decided to compete with the art of painting through the semiprecious stone inlays in which the workshop founded by him in 1588 was specialized. This workshop proved to be capable of cutting the semiprecious stones along sinuous and complex contours, while still making the single pieces fit together so precisely as to make the joints between the various stones practically invisible. This technique permitted the Florentine masters to produce a vast repertory of images, ranging from portraiture to still-life, to scared scenes and landscapes.

The picture shows an example of the landscape theme. It was derived from painted model prepared for this purpose by the elderly Bernardino Poccetti, an affirmed artist with an already lengthy activity on behalf of the Medici.