INDIAN HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Pietra Dura, the work of designing highly illusionistic pictures on hard cut stones out of cut-to-shape pieces of coloured stone, from Florence, Italy, flourished in the late 16th and early 17th century. The hard cut stones might as well be considered as jewel and so it is called semi-precious.

Detailed explanation-2: -The building material used is brick-in-lime mortar veneered with red sandstone and marble and inlay work of precious/semi precious stones. The mosque and the guest house in the Taj Mahal complex are built of red sandstone in contrast to the marble tomb in the centre.

Detailed explanation-3: -The “hard stone” that is used in pietra dura includes agate, jasper, lapis, jade, malachite, onyx, quartzes, and alabaster. Typically the backing will be made of black marble or onyx. To make pietra dura, the artisan first traces out their design on the backing panel, then cuts each stone to fit its designated spot.

Detailed explanation-4: -pietra dura, (Italian: “hard stone”), in mosaic, any of several kinds of hard stone used in commesso mosaic work, an art that flourished in Florence particularly in the late 16th and 17th centuries and involved the fashioning of highly illusionistic pictures out of cut-to-shape pieces of coloured stone.

Detailed explanation-5: -The most famous precious or semi-precious inlaying material for Pietra-dura consists of coral, pearl, cornelian, jasper, lapis lazuli, onyx and topaz. However, the base is commonly the white marble.