Gemstones and Art
Exploring the Tucson Fine Mineral Gallery, the author was impressed by artistic masterpieces hanging from the walls. These exhibits ranged from stone mosaics of modern subjects to watercolor paintings of minerals. The author had the chance to speak with mosaic artists Leonardo and Catia Scarpelli (Scarpelli Mosaici, Florence) and watercolor artist Ksenia Levterova (Kyiv).
The Scarpelli family creates stunning mosaics representing contemporary subjects using the technique of commesso fiorentino (from the Latin commettere, meaning “put together”), which dates back to the Italian Renaissance. In this craft, opaque stones of different colors and textures (pietra dura) are finely cut into unique shapes and seamlessly joined together. This traditional art form developed and achieved a level of perfection in the late sixteenth century in Florence, under the rule of the Medici family, who wanted to depict their era in a durable, eternal medium.
Leonardo Scarpelli, the son of a commesso fiorentino master, began his career in 1992. Challenged by the idea of moving from traditional to more modern subjects, he experimented with the commesso fiorentino technique by incorporating gem materials that had never been used before, such as labradorite. Scarpelli discovered that labradorite brought depth and life to subjects where dynamism is essential, such as a splashing water drop or meteorites falling in the night sky (figure 1, left), allowing him to create unusual motion effects unexpected from a traditional mosaic.
After Scarpelli exhibited in some gem and mineral shows, the idea of reproducing mineral specimens with the proper transparency and color nuances by means of commesso fiorentino became a compelling challenge. When commissioned to reproduce a fine aquamarine specimen from Pakistan, the Scarpellis’ extensive search for the right color landed on Larimar, the trade name for a variety of pectolite. Its light blue color and white speckles made Larimar ideal for the purpose, leading to impressive results (figure 1, right). This is one more case where the use of a gem material associated with traditional stones demonstrated all its potential in bringing into play precious effects, colors, and textures.
Ksenia Levterova is a talented Ukrainian watercolor artist. Passionate about the perfection of mineral shapes and their fascinating colors, she specializes in the reproduction of mineralogical subjects at a photorealistic level.
Levterova’s artworks exhibited in Tucson this year encompassed a wide range of subjects, from the captivating beauty of fine specimens such as tourmaline to the precise reproduction of mineral crystallizations (figure 2). Watercolor makes it possible to represent the most subtle variations in color and transparency effects while displaying each crystal’s characteristics with remarkably high definition. The degree of realism and the fidelity to shapes and color nuances allow a rigorous mineralogical consistency. As a result, Levterova’s work is becoming popular in many gem and mineral shows, and she has a gallery hosted on Mindat (https://www.mindat.org/gallery-63606.html).
