From the earliest times, wood decoration methods fall into five categories: painting, gilding, engraving, carving, and intarsia. The ancient art of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by laying precious and exotic materials into or onto a groundwork of solid wood - inspired both marquetry and inlay. Through the centuries, rich patrons employed craftsmen to create beautiful works of art from wood. Works of this sort are seen in the histories of ancient Egypt, imperial Rome, Persia, eighth-century Japan, and fifteenth and sixteenth century Germany and Italy, where the best examples are found. The traditional process, involving many long and demanding steps, was 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 tiles and these mosaic 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. According to Italian authorities, the word intarsia is derived from the Latin verb interserere, "to insert". These authorities classify intarsia works as "sectile" (in which fragments of wood or other materials are inserted in a wood surface) and "pictorial" (in which pieces of wood completely cover a ground). As in modern intarsia work, the wood slices were attached with glue. Historians agree that the city of Siena was the cradle of Italian wood carving and inlaying. As early as the thirteenth century, documents mentioned a certain Manuello who, with his son Parit, in 1259 worked on the ancient choir of the Siena Cathedral. Domenico di Nicolo, one of the finest Sienese masters of intarsia and carving, worked for 13 years on the chapel in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, using some of Taddeo Bartoli's designs. Di Nicolo's work also included the doors of the Sala di Balia. Intarsia work was also made at an early date at Orvieto, but the craftsmen were all Sienese. In Italy, where the techniques are more than a hundred years older than in other European countries, Intarsia was originally made by sinking forms into wood following a prearranged design, and then filling in the hollows with pieces of different woods. The color of wood on the same plank usually differs from place to place; tinting would not have obscured the variations in wood color.

HOME PAGE

INTARSIA PICS

HISTORY OF INTARSIA

FAVORITE LINKS

F KEY SAVER

TEST BED

My Pages