Precious and coloured stones

If stone support were generally inexpensive, lapis lazuli was precious. Often provided by patrons, it could be found in excavation of the antique city or imported from Afghanistan. However, painters did not employ the most expensive lapis, dark blue or with gold inclusions, but rather pieces with noticeable white streaks, more suited to portray landscapes. Occasionally, as in the Mary Magdalen (private collection), artists did not use whole slabs, more desirable and costly, but small pieces carefully joined in workshops that dealt with hardstones. The collaboration with stone-cutters is evident in the Rest during the Flight into Egypt by Johann König, where a small sliver of lapis lazuli is inlaid in the pietra paesina to underline the miraculous nature of the spring that appeared in the desert. The very thin slab of lapis, painted on both sides by Tempesta, was perhaps recycled from material discarded from the altarpiece of Borghese chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore. In Latona Turning the Lycian peasants into Frogs the stone support alludes to the permanence of the goddess’ malediction against them for their rudeness; they were condemned to live forever in a pond.

 

---