Attributed to Giovanni Castrucci
Attributed to Giovanni Castrucci, Wooded Landscape with Crenellated Wall. Ca.1600–1607, commesso di pietre dure of semi-precious hard stones and petrified wood mounted on slate. Gift of the Collection of Edward A. and Inge Maser in honor of Richard Born, Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, 2008.43.
This intricate landscape was created using the commesso di pietre dure method, a costly and labor-intensive process that involved combining precisely cut fragments of precious and semi-precious stones to create a mosaic, which could then be set into tabletops, cabinets, small altars, and other furnishings. Invented in sixteenth-century Florence, the practice arose alongside early modern debates about the nature of representation and the artistic agency of natural processes. To form this view of a wooded landscape, the artisan exploited the color and pattern of each stone fragment to suggest delicate patterns of foliage, distant vegetation, and dramatic clouds. The inclusion of petrified wood alongside various stones brings another dimension to the object’s subtle play with visual analogy, inviting us to reflect on the interaction of representation and materiality.