- By Tushar Ovhal Pietra Dura is an art form which is used to make decorative vases, table-top, furniture and many other artistic displays. It is a technique in which highly intricate exhibits are made out of small hard stones. We can find its traces in ancient Italian art where the phrase Pietra Dura means “hard stones” and uses highly delicate technique to integrate small shaped coloured stones to form intricate sculptures. The stones used are usually silicates, including agates, alabaster, amethyst, jade, jasper, lapis lazuli, malachite, onyx, and topaz. It has developed as antiquity. The technique originally consisted of shaping the coloured stones with small saws, wires and then adding them to decorative objects and sculptures. The art was revived during the Renaissance by Italian craftsmen and the first hard-stone workshop was established by the Medici family in Florence in 1588. |
This technique of Pitera Dura can be predominantly seen in the most dominant architectural phenomenon of the incomparable Taj Mahal. The crown of the Mughal architecture, the Taj Mahal, constructed between 1630 and 1653 by a workforce of more than twenty thousand workforce, is said to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The name Pietra Dura, generates a lot of debate as far as the origin is concerned. The mostly widely accepted fact is that the form has its origin from Italy but was later on adapted by Indian craftsmen according to their needs, they gave it an indigenous feel and used the technique to carve traditional Indian arts and sculpture, including the Taj Mahal.
The work of cutting and shaping the raw stones into ornamental pieces is a matter of great precision. Two different artisans work upon the stone and the marble.
Firstly a design of the choice of the artist is cut out on a metal sheet. Grooves, measuring 3-4 mm, are made on appropriate places on the surface of marble, the grooves may be larger depending on the design selected, simultaneously, and the work of cutting and shaping the stones is carried out. The grooves are made of the same size as that of the cut stones so that fit perfectly in the grooves. Special emphasis is laid on choosing various shades of semiprecious stones which will give the right shading and gradient to the intricate designs. Emery Stone wheel is used to file and refine these precious and semi-precious stones, which after being shaped and polished are laid into the marble with adhesive. |
In 2004-2005, UNESCO organized a workshop on Pietra Dura, during which some plaques were produced. But they did not find place in any of the monuments and the event proved an exercise in futility.
Some of architectural works which have used Pietra Dura are the Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque in Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, the Red fort in Delhi with the Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas, the Jami Masjid in Delhi and the Mausoleum of Jehangir in Shahdara, Lahore (in Pakistan).