CHAPTER XVII. (XXXI.)
Of Mosaic in wood, that is, of Tarsia; and of the Compositions that are made in Tinted Woods, fitted together after the manner of a picture.
§ 100. Inlays in Wood.
How easy a thing it is to add some new discovery to the inventions of the past, is clearly shown to us, not only by the aforesaid fitted pavement, which without doubt comes from mosaic work, but also by these same tarsias and the figures of many different things, that closely resembling mosaic and painting have been made by our elder artists out of little pieces of wood, variously coloured, fitted and joined together in panels of walnut. This is called by the moderns ‘lavoro di commesso’ (inlaid work) although to the elder artists it was tarsia. The best specimens of this work were to be found in Florence in the time of Filippo di Ser Brunellesco and afterwards in that of Benedetto da Maiano, who, however, strangely enough judged tarsia a useless thing and completely abandoned it as will be told in his Life. He, like the others of past times, executed tarsia in black and white only, but Fra Giovanni of Verona who was very proficient in the art improved it greatly, giving various colours to the woods by means of dyes in boiling water and of penetrating oils, in order to produce the lights and shadows with these variously tinted woods, as in the art of painting, and skilfully putting in the high lights by means of the very white wood of the silio.[[260]] This work began in the first instance with designs in perspective, because the forms in these end with plane angles, and the pieces joined together showed the contours, and the work appeared all of one flat piece, though it was made up of more than a thousand. The ancients worked however in the same manner with incrustations of fine stones: as is plainly seen in the portico of St. Peter’s, where there is a cage with a bird and all the details of the wooden bars etc., on a ground of porphyry inlaid with other different stones.[[261]] But, because wood is more pliant and much more amenable for this work, our masters have been able to make more abundant use of it and in the way that best pleased them. Formerly for making the shadows they used to scorch the wood with fire on one side, this imitated shade well; but others afterwards have used oil of sulphur and corrosive sublimate and preparations of arsenic, with which substances they have obtained the hues that they desired, as is seen in the work of Fra Damiano in San Domenico in Bologna.[[262]] And because such a line of work consists only in the choice of designs that may be adapted to it—those containing blocks of buildings and objects with rectangular outlines to which force and projection can be lent by means of light and shade—it has always been exercised by persons possessing more patience than skill in design. And thus it is that though many things have been produced in this line, such as representations of figures, fruit, and animals, some of which are in truth most life-like, yet since it is a work that soon becomes black and does not do more than counterfeit painting, being less than painting, and is also of short duration because of worms and fire, it is considered time thrown away in vain to practise it, although it may indeed be both praiseworthy and masterly.[[263]]