PIETRA PAESINA (LANDSCAPE MARBLE) - Florence, Italy
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PIETRA PAESINA
(SMALL EXAMPLE)
The classic Italian ‘landscape marble’
Florence, Italy
This is a tiny, but absolutely delightful example of landscape marble. It shows a scene resembling cliffs and the even odd cloud in the sky.
The Italian Pietra paesina or ‘landscape stone’ from near Florence has been highly prized by craftsmen since at least the 16th century. Also known as ‘ruin marble’ it shows a remarkable resemblance to a landscape of ruins, castles, towers and cliifs.
The fine-grained limestone, which dates from the Cretaceous period, contains a network of extremely fine cracks or fissures which have been ‘healed’ by infilling with microscopic calcite crystals. Much later, groundwater containing iron oxides infiltrated the limestone and the iron diffused through the rock in pulses or waves. The barriers formed by the infilled cracks controlled the movement of this water creating the landscape effect.
It has been polished on one side. The reverse shows a similar scene but is unpolished.
Click on a picture for a larger image
Size: 5 x 4 x 0.5 centimetres
Weight: 27 grams
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