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PAIR OF PIETRA DURA PLAQUES WITH BIRDS IN GILT BRONZE FRAME, 18th Century

18th Century

Fine Italian tabletop created using the scagliola technique depicting mythological scenes and floral motives

Unusual 14th Century Italian marble mortar with animals depicted on the sides

Precious plaque containing examples of fine and rare different marbles used in Rome.

A fine pair of Italian miniature jasper plinths

Typical of 18th Century Rome, this fascinating pink marble urn with lid is a wonderful example of Italian decorative arts. Embellished with bronze moun...

19th century sculpture depicting a roman carved-marble candelabrum shaft richly decorate with leaf motive. In excellent condition, this fine sculptures measures 26 cm in width and sh...

Monochromatic, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. ...

In the series “Heavenly,” Toyoharu Kii honors the fullness of life and its continual rebirth. In some works, white tesserae assume abstract profiles. In others, irregular shapes cont...

In the mosaic “Accumulated Roads,” Toyoharu Kii describes the futility of man’s attempts to traverse and tame nature. The work portrays a tangle of once carefully aligned tesserea paths, now broken and falling ruin, a victim of disregard in nature’s relentless chaos. A leader of the cross-cultural craft resurgence, Japan-based artist Toyoharu Kii creates his intricate mosaics with hand-cut Italian marble and smalti, Venetian glass made by the same Italian family for over 400 years. Using traditional Italian techniques, Kii’s art is nonetheless modern. It is monochromatic, abstract, and highly textured and highlights the involved and technical art...

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Classically trained in Florence, Italy, Kii creates his modern mosaics using traditional techniques and materials, including hand-cut Italian marble and Venetian smalti glass. Eschewing the figural in favor of the abstract, his mosaics rely on contrasts of pattern and form to convey complex themes and achieve visual harmony. Toyoharu Kii’s latest body of work “Geophytes” continues themes of rebirth and renewal. A reference to plants that regrow from hidden elements beneath the earth’s surface, the series celebrates the resilience of the natural world. Each mosaic is imagined as a landscape that documents a history of environmental damage due to human activity, and the subsequent return of nature as a restorative force. Through the juxtaposition of patterns and the interplay of order and disorder, Kii creates man-made “images of destruction” and finds hope in the future by “reconstructing nature.” In this mosaic entitled "Ghost (Big Wings)," Kii takes a more representational approach to his storytelling, creating figurative drawings out of thin lines of tesserae. The mosaic belongs to his “Ghost” triptych, wherein Kii uses “wings” to represent the presence of a heavenly being, the ghosts of past spirits or the presence of an angel or guardian. In “Ghost (Big Wings),” Kii mourns the extinction of many creatures due to environmental change and imagines their lonely spirits wandering the earth. Enveloping their silhouettes is “a bird with big wings,” writes Kii, depicted here within a dense mosaic of abstract patterns, a symbol for nature’s healing power. “The bird consoles...

Magnificent and colorful, this enchanting Florentine work of art is not a painting, but upon closer inspection is revealed to be a superb example of the intensive art of pietre dure....

Capital with ox skull: "Bucranium". Carved marble. 16th - 17th century. Bucranium with garlands is a decorative element that dates back to the art of Ancient Rome, later taken up by...