active: 1588 - present In 1588 Grand Duke Ferdinando I founded
the Galleria de' Lavori in Pietre Dure, a hardstone workshop, in
Florence. He hired local craftsmen and trained them to restore
ancient carved-stone objects as well as create original works in
pietre dure.These artists soon perfected the art of making
pictures with thin pieces of brightly colored stones set
together much like a jigsaw puzzle. During the 1600s the
Galleria worked mainly on the decorations of the Medici family's
chapel in the church of San Lorenzo, begun in 1605. But by the
1700s, when pietre dure became increasingly fashionable, artists
trained in this workshop traveled all over Europe to work for
other noble or royal households. Renamed the Opificio delle
Pietre Dure in the mid-1800s, the workshop continues to operate
today as a state-supported institution. Pope Clement VIII
Italian, 1600 - 1601