The Materials

The masters of Florentine mosaic use mostly Tuscan, if not Florentine, stones for creating their masterpieces.

Since ancient times, semi-precious, sometimes imported, stones have been also used to complete the stone paintings with their particular colours and streaks.

The use of stones of Tuscan origin is another element explaining the charm emanating from a mosaic created with the authentic Florentine commesso technique.

Possessing a work of art produced by real Florentine masters using this technique means not only holding a rare and valuable high quality artistic object, but also possessing a work of art that through its stones is strongly bound to Florence, the city of art par excellence.

The precious Tuscan stones are the real secret element of the Medicean Florentine commesso, and this is evident when visiting the medieval building housing the Studio Musivo Lastrucci and observing the two masters at work on their masterpieces.

Particularly important are chalcedonies or translucent quartz, the jaspers that are found in the Arno River, all varieties of alberese and the “paesina” stone.

As Iacopo Lastrucci has recently written, there are only two ways for finding the stones:

“either the market, which every mosaicist should visit periodically, or the personal visit to old mines and quarries even beyond the boundaries of Tuscany.

This is the right way for passing down the memory of the ancient Florentine stone hunters and the beauty of the best light of our land.”