December | PAINTING PIETRA
A new collection of painted panels by Denise Allan will focus on the 17th century examples of pietra dura which can be found set within furniture, doors and fireplaces. Often described as ‘painting in stone’, the technique involves inlaying pieces of polished precious and semi-precious stones, and sometimes even shells, into a background of dark marble to create realistic textures and objects. Denise’s collection reaches further back before the technique was created to the work of the Renaissance painter and designer Jacopo Ligozzi (1547-1626) who influenced Florentine pietre dura workshops as the fashion for images with birds and flowers grew extensively in the first half of the 17th century. These panels by Denise Allan take the medium full circle from stone inlay back to paint. In her signature trompe l’oeil style she manages to beautifully create the same luminosity of the stone in paint.
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