The stones of Florence

The relationship of craftsmen's trades with the architecture of the city of Florence has always been inseparable and symbiotic. With this itinerary dedicated to the Stones of Florence, we intend to emphasise how much architecture has been able to express itself through the craftsmen and masters of art, and how craftsmanship has been the driving force behind the decorations and constructions that characterise the city of Florence.

Stones have not only given form and structure to buildings, for example their majestic rusticated and polished ashlar Renaissance façades, but have also decorated the interiors of palaces and houses through furnishings, tables and, in some particular cases, actual walls, as can be seen in the splendid Chapel of the Princes in the Medici Chapels of the Church of San Lorenzo.

These incredible works were created, and still are today, by master craftsmen who use semi-precious stones as fundamental elements, colours on a palette, to compose their ideas and create objects using the techniques of commesso in semi-precious stones, micro-mosaic, inlay and scagliola. Centuries of wonderment enclosed in the workshops we present here, which do not limit themselves to the execution of traditional stylistic features, but are capable of exploiting technique and tools for new tastes, reinventing and experimenting, updating their offerings with subjects of a contemporary character, an expression of new commissions.  

A journey to discover ancient manual traditions that have been able to reassert themselves by bringing the knowledge of yesterday's hands into the present day.

This itinerary is part of the European project Crafts Code.