Intarsia: A Brief History

From the earliest times, wood decoration methods fall into five categories: painting, gilding, engraving, carving, and intarsia. The ancient art of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by laying precious and exotic materials into or onto a groundwork of solid wood - inspired both marquetry and inlay.

Through the centuries, rich patrons employed craftsmen to create beautiful works of art from wood. Works of this sort are seen in the histories of ancient Egypt, imperial Rome, Persia, eighth-century Japan, and fifteenth and sixteenth century Germany and Italy, where the best examples are found. The traditional process, involving many long and demanding steps, was both expensive and painstaking. First, rare and exotic hardwoods had to be imported at great cost. Then the groundwork was slowly carved, lowered, and trenched. Next the precious but difficult-to-cut wood was sawed and sliced into 1/4" to ½" thick tiles and these mosaic tiles were fit and set, one at a time, in a bed of glue or mastic. Finally, the inlaid surface was scraped, rubbed down, waxed, and burnished.

According to Italian authorities, the word intarsia is derived from the Latin verb interserere, "to insert." These authorities classify intarsia works as "sectile" (in which fragments of wood or other materials are inserted in a wood surface) and "pictorial" (in which pieces of wood completely cover a ground). As in modern intarsia work, the wood slices were attached with glue.

Historians agree that the city of Siena was the cradle of Italian wood carving and inlaying. As early as the thirteenth century, documents mention a certain Manuello who, with his son Parti, in 1259 worked on the ancient choir of the Siena Cathedral.

Domenico di Nicolo, one of the finest Sienese masters of intarsia and carving, worked for 13 years on the chapel in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, using some of Taddeo Bartoli's designs. di Nicolo's work also included the doors of the Sala di Balia

lntarsia work was also made at an early date at Orvicto, but the craftsmen were all Sienese.

In Italy, where the techniques are more than a hundred years older than in other European countries. Intarsia was originally made by sinking forms into wood, following a prearranged design, and then filling in the hollows with pieces of different coloured woods. Initially only a small number of colours were used. Early writings indicate that the only tints employed were black and white, but this must be interpreted broadly. The colour of wood on the same plank usually differs from place to place; tinting would not have obscured the variations in wood colour.

In the early fifteenth century, at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, the intarsiatori produced graceful arabesque works perfectly suited to the raw material and often executed with perfection.

After the invention of perspective drawing and its application to painting, ambitious intarsia crafters emulated this representational trend in wood. Much of their work focussed on street scenes and architectural subjects (not always very successfully) and simple objects like cupboards with their doors partly open to show items on the shelves (often extraordinarily realistic considering the materials and techniques used). This focus on realism was assisted by Fra Giovanni da Verona's discovery of acid solutions and stains for treating wood (to produce a greater variety of colours) and by the practice of scorching areas of the wood to shade them, suggesting roundness.

In the best works of the period, pear, walnut, and maple were the principal woods, although pine and cypress can also be found. A tincture of gall apples was used to imitate the colour of ebony.

Although fame might be won by the exercise of this demanding but slow and tedious craft, the winning of fortune was a very different thing. Even in Siena, a flourishing town that prided itself on its reputation for fine wood craft, it was difficult for the craftsmen on whose work that reputation depended to make a living. At one time, Florence had 34 workshops for wood carving and intarsia. It can be concluded that work of a certain sort was plentiful and lucrative and intarsia panels were sometimes exported. However, the most celebrated intarsiatori also practised some other form of art and sooner or later abandoned intarsia altogether.

Early intarsia works depend mainly on silhouette for their beauty, but they also exhibit the use of line (made by graver or saw) within the main composition. A great deal can be accomplished by choice of wood type, colour, and tone and by arrangement of grain direction. Some of Fra Giovanni's perspectives show very suggestive skies made in this manner, as well as representations of veined and coloured marble and of rocks. When the human figure entered into the design, however, inner lines were essential. Wood colour and grain were not sufficiently expressive.

The craftsman's aim is to display the qualities of the material with which he is working to best advantage, consistent with the purpose of his work. Pride in overcoming the limitations of the material to achieve an aesthetic vision can at times sway the artist from this course. In any craft the marriage between the material and the vision - the presence of an intelligent designer - should be paramount.

On the subject of intarsia design, Stephen Webb has said:

'Tone harmony, and in a limited degree, the sense of values,[the artist] must certainly cultivate. He must be able to draw a line or combination of lines which may be ingenious if you like, but must be delicate and graceful, vigorous, and in proper relation to any masses which he may introduce into his design. He must thoroughly understand the value of contrast in line and surface form, but these matters, though a stumbling block to the amateur, are the opportunities for the competent designer and craftsman. The most charming possibilities of broken colour lie ready to his hand, to be merely selected by him and introduced into his design. If the wood be properly selected, shading is rarely necessary, and if it is done at all should be done by an artist. In the hands of an artist very beautiful effects may be obtained, the same kind of wood being made to yield quite a number of varying shades of colour of a low but rich tone. Over-staining and the abuse of shading, are destructive'.

Sources: Jackson, E Hamilton. lntarsia and Marquetry.

Hawkins, David, Techniques of Woodworking, Sterling

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