Intarsia

DEFINITION

See Inlay/Intarsia<br><br>Inlay work, primarily in wood and sometimes in mother-of-pearl, ivory, bone, marble, etc. This may result in either pattern or picture. To construct intarsia, outline drawings are used as templates for cutting many pieces of thin material. The cut pieces are glued onto a sturdy support. In a wooden intarsia, many types of wood provide the different colors used. Sometimes stains, bleaches, or heat were applied to the wood to provide a wider range of tints, tones, and shades. The English word "intarsia" came from the Italian "lavoro di intarsia."(pr. in-TAHR-see-&#601;)Examples: Fra Giovanni da Verona (Italian), Intarsia Illusion of Cupboards, two pairs of panels of wood intarsia, 1520: Each conveys the appearance of open cupboard doors ? a trompe l&#39;oeil effect resulting from the use of linear perspective. The first panel: a Campanus sphere, a mazzocchio, and various instruments of the geometer. see thumbnail to leftThe second panel: a complex polyhedron which can be constructed by erecting a pyramid of equilateral triangles on each face of an icosidodecahedron. These first two panels are in the Monastery of Monte Olivetto Maggiore, near Siena, Italy. The third: the Campanus sphere again, along with an icosahedron and a truncated icosahedron. The fourth: a cube with equilateral pyramids erected on each face, a cuboctahedron, and again the elevated icosidodecahedron. The second two panels are in the church of Santa Maria in Organo, Verona.