History of Intarsia Part I

[ragiarn]

It is important to understand the origins of this beautiful form of wood working. I have gathered a number of versions of the history of Intarsia from the internet with the origins of the citations.

Doc

The History of Intarsia
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. The groundwork was slowly carved, lowered, and trenched. Next the precious but difficult-to-cut hardwood was sawed and sliced into 1/4" to 1/2" 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 mentioned a certain Manuello who, with his son Parit, 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. Intarsia work was also made at an early date at Orvieto, 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 In Italy, where the techniques are more than a hundred years older than in other European countries, Intarsia was originally made by sinking forms into wood following a prearranged design, and then filling in the hollows with pieces of different woods. Initially only a small number of colors were used. Early writings indicated that the only tints employed were black and white, but this must be interpreted broadly. The color of wood on the same plank usually differs from place to place; tinting would not have obscured the variations in wood color. 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. These works are considered by some to be the most entirely satisfactory of their works, although no necessarily the most marvelous. After the invention of perspective drawing and its application to painting, ambitious intarsia crafters emulated this representational trend in wood. Much of their work focused 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 extraordinary realistic considering the materials and techniques used.) This focus on realism was assisted by Fra Glovanni da VeronaÕs discovery of acid solutions and stains for treating wood (to produce a greater variety of colors) 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 color of ebony. Although fame might be won by exercise of this demanding, 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 practiced 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, color, 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 colored marble and of rocks. When the human figure entered into the design, however, inner lines were essential. Wood color and grain were not sufficiently expressive. The craftsmanÕs aim is to display the qualities of the material with which he is working to their 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 Web 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 color 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 the 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 color of a low but rich tone. Over-staining and the abuse of shading are destructive.


SOURCES: Jackson, F. Hamilton, Intarsia and Marquetry, London: Sands & Co., 1903. Hawkins, David, Techniques of woodworking, Sterling

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Many woodworkers have looked into the subject but sadly we really know very little about the history of the fascinating art of intarsia - and really nothing before the 13th or 14th century.
Some say it has it's roots in 8th Century Japan. Others say it started in Ancient Egypt or with the Roman Empire or the Persians. For as long as anyone knows there have been artistic wood pictures - but are they intarsia or inlay? Sculpture or carving?
One of the major problems is the lack of examples from these times - over a few hundred years wood has a nasty tendency to rot!
We do know for certain that intarsia was practiced in Italy from the 13th Century and in parts of Germany in the 15th and 16th Century. We know that it was used alongside carving and inlay - often practiced by the same craftsmen and sometimes with remarkable skill considering the tools they had available.
We also know that by the late 17th Century it had just about disappeared - replaced by marquetry and inlay. The reasons for this are probably part fashion and part commercial. Not only do tastes change but it was certainly more profitable to produce marquetry and inlay. You can't really blame the artisans for what they made when their livelihood depended on it.
From the 18th to the 20th Century... nothing. There might have been a man in a shed somewhere practicing intarsia - but if there was, no-one knew anything about him!
The fact that we have intarsia as we know it today is almost entirely down to one person - Judy Gale Roberts - who revived the art in the late 1970s. In the eighties she was joined by Jerry Booher and together they not only created beautiful pieces for sale but also began producing patterns and books which spread intarsia as a hobby.
Which brings us just about up to date. Today patterns are available from many sources. There are intarsians in the US and Canada, in Europe and Australia, and the internet allows them to share ideas regardless of where they are geographically via web-based discussion groups.
So whether you're looking at intarsia as an absorbing hobby or from a more commercial point of view it's an exciting time to be involved and looks set to develop even further.

Article Source: Bob Beacham - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
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[ragiarn]

I had to split this into three postings-
Doc

Subject: Brief history of Intarsia in Italy

VERONA Italy, July 17, 2001 - 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. The groundwork was slowly carved, lowered, and trenched. Next the precious but difficult-to-cut hardwood was sawed and sliced into 1/4" to 1/2" 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 mentioned a certain Manuello who, with his son Parit, 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. Intarsia work was also made at an early date at Orvieto, 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 woods. The color of wood on the same plank usually differs from place to place; tinting would not have obscured the variations in wood color.

http://www.studiosoft.it/ArleNewsV3N13.htm


Jackson, E Hamilton
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Intarsia
Intarsia is a synonym for inlay work. The technique of intarsia was first developed in classical antiquity, but became popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Intarsia is made by carving a pattern on a wooden surface, about 2 or 3 millimetres thick. The gaps created are then filled with pieces of different sorts of wood, brass or ivory. These are attached with adhesive to create a smooth surface. All kinds of motifs and designs are possible, from abstract patterns to perspective interiors. Inlay of geometric figures is known as 'certosina'.

Intarsia - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Museum for Art and History
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A Look at the History of Intarsia
First, the definition of in•tar•si•a (in-tär'së-a) noun.
1. A decorative inlaid pattern in a surface, especially a mosaic worked in wood.
2. A knitted design resembling a mosaic that is visible on both sides of a fabric.
3. The art or practice of making intarsia´s.
German, from Italian intarsio, from intarsiare, to inlay: in + tarsia (from Latin),
an inlaid mosaic work, from the Arabic tarsi, inlaying, setting, to inlay).
The two we are mainly interested in here, are numbers 1 and 3.

Intarsia or tarsia, which is properly a form of wood inlaying. This term is sometimes applied to inlays of other materials such as ivory and metal or precious stones. It is however differentiated from marquetry by the basic veneering process of the latter.
The term intarsia is specifically applied to a type of inlaying probably developed during or around the Renaissance era in Siena, Italy, in the 14th century and derived from Middle Eastern inlays of ivory upon wood. This art was widely practiced in Italy from c.1400 to c.1600. The fashion for intarsia declined thereafter probably due to the cost of the materials and intensive man-hours it took to produce the pieces, although some works in this medium were still produced. Intarsia
work was also practiced to a limited extent elsewhere in western Europe at that time.
Designs included pictorial scenes and conventionalized scrolls, arabesques, and geometric forms. Sometimes on quite elaborate pieces such as the traveling chest, circa 1540, from Germany shown below.


Geometric figure (1537),
intarsia by fra Damiano da Bergamo; Museum of the Basilica of Saint Dominic,
in Bologna, Italy.

m...
Today, intarsia is created by selecting different types of wood, using its natural grain patterns and colors (rather than dyes and stains) to create the different colors in the pattern. Each piece of wood is then individually cut, shaped, and sanded before fitting them together like a jig-saw puzzle and gluing them to a piece of 1/4 inch plywood backing cut to the shape of the final product. Sometimes, additional pieces of plywood are used to raise areas of the pattern to create more depth. Once together, a final layer of finish is applied and the project is complete.

So the true origins of the intarsia style of art work is vague at best. At least in respect to the use of wood as the medium. This is because while there are numerous examples of stone or tile work still in existence today, wood just does not have the ability to withstand the ravages of time. If it is not preserved properly, it simply deteriorates and rots away. This is the number one reason no examples of the form are to be found today. At least any further back than approximately the early 1500's. This brings us up to the current forms of inatrsia being made.



Bibliography and Citations:
Institute of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage Opificio delle Pietre Dure - Firenze

Jackson, F. Hamilton, Intarsia and Marquetry, (London: Sands & Co.) 1903 excerpt

http://www.tbirdranch.com/Intarsiafiles/intarshist.html

Wikipedia Intarsia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "intarsia." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2005.

[ragiarn]

"intarsia." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003.

Encyclopedia Britannica Britannica Online Encyclopedia "intarsia." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2006.

"intarsia." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.

All References are Copyrighted by their respective owners and are used here strictly for educational and informative purposes only.


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Marquetry History

What is Marquetry?
Marquetry is the art of combining different veneer pieces to form pictures or patterns. The decorative effects are produced by contrasting colours and shapes of veneer, which are then adhered to a base wood.
There is also a craft called Parquetry, which is a form of veneering where a repetitive pattern is created using pieces of veneer of geometric shape.

How is Marquetry different from Intarsia and Inlay?
Intarsia is setting a solid wood pattern into a solid wood base. Inlay, which is also a form of Intarsia, is when a contrasting piece of solid wood is laid into a piece of wood. Intarsia and Inlay are so close in description, but generally Intarsia is when a picture or intricate design is formed, where inlay is often just a line or medallion laid into a base wood.


A history of Marquetry as stated in the book Marquetry & Inlay by Alan & Gill Bridgewater.

Marquetry and inlay were inspired by the ancient craft of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by the inlaying of precious and exotic material into or onto a groundwork of solid wood. 

Three thousand or so years ago, the Egyptians decorated much of their woodwork with inlay. In fact, in the tomb of the Pharaoh King Tutankhamen, the throne, chest, coffers, and nearly all the furniture are literally covered with inlay, Precious stones, miniature glazed tiles, and little brickets of wood, gold and ivory wonderfully embellished items of special prestigious and ceremonial importance. 

In the Orient - in Persia, India, China and Japan - inlay workers created all sorts of decorative delights, from complex wood parquetry designs set into floors to wood mosaics on walls and furniture, to small inlay picture designs on boxes, caskets, tombs, reliquaries and ceremonial regalia. All uniquely beautiful, and all fabulously expensive in terms of time, labor and cost of materials. Through the centuries, in ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome, Persia, eighth-century Japan, and sixteenth-century Italy and Germany, rich patrons employed inlay craftsmen to create beautiful works of art. The process was both expensive and
painstaking because, traditionally, the craft involved many long steps: importing rare and exotic hardwoods; slowly carving, lowering, and trenching a groundwork; sawing and slicing the small amount of difficult-to-cut, expensive hardwood into 1/4-1/2-inch-thick



tiles; fitting and setting the mosaic tiles into a bed of glue or mastic, one piece at a time; and then finally scraping, rubbing down, waxing, and burnishing the inlay surface.
And so it might have continued, had not an anonymous German clockmaker invented the jigsaw blade near the end of the sixteenth century. The blade made possible new mass-production methods. No longer was the craft slow and prohibitively expensive, nor was it greedily gobbling up vast amounts of rare exotic woods. With the revolutionary fast-moving, frame-held saw blade, it was possible to double, triple and even quadruple production simply by repeatedly cutting the expensive slab woods into thinner and thinner sheets. Better still, it was also possible to sandwich stacks of veneers together and cut six or so designs all at once. 

As they say, the rest is all history. From the seventeenth century right through to the end of the nineteenth century, tools improved, and techniques became
increasingly swifter and more refined. By the end of the nineteenth century, thin inlay veneer, or Marquetry as it had now come to be called, was an extremely popular and accessible form of furniture decoration. The early twentieth century heralded a revival of interest in special high-quality, exotic wood inlays and Marquetries, with designers, hobbyists and artists creating pieces considered works of art in their own right

Greentree Creations
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The ancient art of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictoralmosaic by laying precious and exotic materials into or onto a groundwork of solidwood.
Inspired both Marquetry and inlay.
Through the centuries, rich patrons employed craftsman to create beautiful works of art from wood. Works of this of beauty have been seen in the historys of ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome, Persia, Eighth - century Japan, and fifth and sixth century Germany and Italy, where the best examples are found.
The traditional process, involving many long and demanding steps, were both expensive and painstaking. First, rare and exotic hardwoods had to be imported at great cost. The groundwork was slowly carved, lowered and trenched. Next the precious but difficult-to-cut hardwood was sawed and sliced into 1/4" to 1/2" thick tile. Sanded, these domosaic 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.
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 executed with perfection. These works are considered by some to be the most entirely satisfactory of their works, although not necessarily the most marvelous.
After the invention of perspective drawing and its application to painting, ambitious intarsia crafters emulated this representational trend in wood. Much of their work focused 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 extraordinary realistic considering the materials , techniques and tools used). This foucus on realism was assisted by Fra Glovanni da Verona's discovery of acid solutions and stains for treating wood (to produce a greater variety of colors) and suggesting roundness.
In the best 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 color of ebony. Although fame might be won by exercise of this demanding slow and tedious craft, the winning of fortune was a very different thing .
In Siena, a flourishing town that prided itself on its reputation for fine wood craft, it was difficult for the craftsmen, whose work that reputation depended on, to make a living.
At one time, Florence had 34 workshops for carving and Intarsia. It can be concluded that work of a certain sort was plentiful and lucrative and intarsia panels were somtimes exported. However, the most celebrated intarsiatori also practiced 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, color, tone and arrangement of grain direction.
Some of Fra Giovanni's perspectives show very suggestive skies made in his manner, as well as representations of veined and colored marble and rocks. When the humanfigure entered into the design however, inner lines were essential. Wood color and grain were not sufficiently expressive.
The craftsman's aim is to display the qualities of the material which he is working to their best advantage,
consistant 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 vision - the presence of an intelligent designer - should be paramount.

SOURCES:
Jackson, F. Hamilton, Intarsia and Marquetry, London: Sands & Co. ,
1903. Hawkins, David , Techniques of woodworking, Sterlin

[greatdane2]

Interesting read, I am also glad that Judy Gale Roberts gets credit for the modern growth of Intarsia. One of her books in a grocery store got me going. Just wish she lived a bit closer to this side of the country.

[minowevie]

Gosh, what a wheath of impho. you guys are the greatist. I have to copy all this stuff. thanks your friend Evie

[Plaquerd]

Doc
Thanks for all the info! Great thread!