The ancient art of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictoralmosaic by laying precious and exotic materials into or onto a groundwork of solidwood.
Inspired both Marquetry and inlay.
Through the centuries, rich patrons employed craftsman to create beautiful works of art from wood. Works of this of beauty have been seen in the historys of ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome, Persia, Eighth - century Japan, and fifth and sixth century Germany and Italy, where the best examples are found.
The traditional process, involving many long and demanding steps, were both expensive and painstaking. First, rare and exotic hardwoods had to be imported at great cost. The groundwork was slowly carved, lowered and trenched. Next the precious but difficult-to-cut hardwood was sawed and sliced into 1/4" to 1/2" thick tile. Sanded, these domosaic tiles were fit and set, one at a time in a bed of glue or mastic. Finally, the inlaid surface was scraped, rubbed down, waxed, and burnished.
In the early fifteenth century, at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, the intarsiatori produced graceful arabesque works perfectly suited to the raw material and executed with perfection. These works are considered by some to be the most entirely satisfactory of their works, although not necessarily the most marvelous.
After the invention of perspective drawing and its application to painting, ambitious intarsia crafters emulated this representational trend in wood. Much of their work focused on street scenes and architectural subjects (not always very successfully) and simple objects like cupboards with their doors partly open to show items on the shelves (often extraordinary realistic considering the materials , techniques and tools used). This foucus on realism was assisted by Fra Glovanni da Verona's discovery of acid solutions and stains for treating wood (to produce a greater variety of colors) and suggesting roundness.
In the best of the period, pear, walnut, and maple were the principal woods although, pine and cypress can also be found . A tincture of gall apples was used to imitate the color of ebony. Although fame might be won by exercise of this demanding slow and tedious craft, the winning of fortune was a very different thing .
In Siena, a flourishing town that prided itself on its reputation for fine wood craft, it was difficult for the craftsmen, whose work that reputation depended on, to make a living.
At one time, Florence had 34 workshops for carving and Intarsia. It can be concluded that work of a certain sort was plentiful and lucrative and intarsia panels were somtimes exported. However, the most celebrated intarsiatori also practiced some other form of art and sooner or later abandoned intarsia altogether.
Early intarsia works depend mainly on silhouette for their beauty, but they also exhibit the use of line (made by graver or saw) within the main composition. A great deal can be accomplished by choice of wood type, color, tone and arrangement of grain direction.
Some of Fra Giovanni's perspectives show very suggestive skies made in his manner, as well as representations of veined and colored marble and rocks. When the humanfigure entered into the design however, inner lines were essential. Wood color and grain were not sufficiently expressive.
The craftsman's aim is to display the qualities of the material which he is working to their best advantage,
consistant with the purpose of his work. Pride in overcoming the limitations of the material to achieve an aesthetic vision can at times sway the artist from this course. In any craft the marriage between the material and vision - the presence of an intelligent designer - should be paramount.
SOURCES:
Jackson, F. Hamilton, Intarsia and Marquetry, London: Sands & Co. ,
1903. Hawkins, David , Techniques of woodworking, Sterling.
