A sixteenth-century inlaid stone landscape, set in a wooden frame and hung in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, seems to be a straightforward object. It is a small, relatively lightweight landscape made out of cut stones, which entered the Habsburg collection through the patronage of Emperor Rudolf II. It might be easily mistaken for a mosaic or a lush landscape by Paul Brill or Roland Savery. Nevertheless, the very notion of an inlaid stone landscape, likely a bird-eye view of the Bohemian countryside made out of Bohemian jaspers and agates, was unusual in the 1600s. This particular composition, by the name of commesso in pietre dure, is not only the product of the manipulation of raw stones and the hunt for natural veins and spots to serve artistic purpose but it also speaks to the complexity of this technique, which denies the visual and privileges a wider range of senses and expertise.
Part of the difficulty in such a broader approach relies upon the very notion of the materiality of an object, which includes properties of the materials, limits and possibilities of the medium, therapeutic purposes and contemporary beliefs, which are intertwined with artisanal knowledge and “intellect of the hand” (Graves, 2018).
By the same token, it is important to note that knowledge of the materials allowed not only the artists, but also the Emperor, to localise a stone and retrace in his mind its path to the workshop and the Kunstkammer. This kind of knowledge is, nowadays, owned only by natural sciences and conservators, who can identify a stone, describe its qualities and precisely locate it on a map. They can do so not only through chemical, mineralogical and textural analysis but also by applying expertise which has been gained in years of practice and tools and methods that are simple and straightforward, though lacking accuracy and precision. Among those, rock licking by Jan Zalasiewicz recalls Pliny’s suggestion to further investigate a stone by putting it in the mouth.
On the other hand, in addressing the value of stones, it is tempting to rank them primarily according to their economic value - as revealed in period accounts - or colour, brightness and roughness - as attested by contemporary lapidaries. Yet, by this logic, the lengthy process to hunt down the perfect shade, the sense of smoothness of the surface in contrast to the roughness of the abrasive emery, the dust that comes from cutting the stone and the smell of the beeswax would be less valorised. Indeed, far from being merely profitable, stones are custodians of a know-how that could tell us much more about the the how-to-know of the culture of the 1600s.
A more expansive approach to raw materials thus encourages a broader understanding of a stone as a natural element in dialogue with other mediums and a cooperative partnership between natural scientists, conservators and material culture scholars, which may get a fuller sense of artistic, social and historical context.
Cooke, Edward S., Jr. Global objects: toward a connected art history. Princeton, 2022, pp. 1-99.
Graves, Margaret S. Arts of allusion: object, ornament, and architecture in medieval Islam. New York, 2018, pp. 26-56.
Ingold, Tim. “Materials against Materiality”. Archaeological Dialogues 14, 1 (2007), pp. 1-16.
Smith, Pamela H. Ways of making and knowing: the material culture of empirical knowledge. New York City, 2017, pp. 17-47.
Zalasiewicz, Jan. “Eating fossils”. Paleontology newsletter 96 (2017). (https://www.palass.org/publications/newsletter/eating-fossils)
Martina
Baraldi
M.A.
Doctoral Candidate
Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
Scholarship: Gerda Henkel Foundation
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
From Florence to Prague and Vienna: commessi in pietre dure landscape. Images made by Nature and those by the many hands of Cosimo Castrucci, “Wiener jahrbuch für kunstgeschichte”, forthcoming spring 2024.
FIELD SCHOOLS AND CONFERENCES
École de Printemps, Art History Art and science. Mediality and Materiality, Trento, 26-30 June, 2023.
Italienische Kunst und Kultur in Wien, teil II, Künstler, Kunstwerke, Sammlungen, Vienna, 11-12 May, 2023.
A sixteenth-century hard stone landscape speaks to the complexity of integrating transdisciplinary research, yet paves the way to a more expansive approach to the raw stones and a cooperative partnership between natural scientists, conservators and material culture scholars. Part of the difficulty relies upon the very notions of properties of the material, the materiality of an object and the know-how and expertise of artisans and users. Giving value to the lengthy process to work a piece of stones and the multisensorial level of the physical engagement, the lecture opens to question the how-to-know of the 1600s.