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Bruno & Iacopo Lastrucci

Bruno & Iacopo Lastrucci Mosaic maker
Contact
Italian, English, French
Hours:
Monday to Friday 09:00 - 13:00 / 15:00 - 19:00 and Saturday 09:00 - 13:00
Phone:
+39 055241653
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Mosaic paintings to last an eternity

  • • Iacopo's father Bruno taught him the techniques of mosaic making
  • • Even today, they both work with the same hand tools used in the 1500s
  • • The first object Iacopo did was a small butterfly: now it’s his lucky charm

"In the workshop we are like friars, it’s like being in a seminary: silence, great concentration… But out of here we are like devils: after a day in the workshop, where we do our work with passion and seriousness, we really need to chill out and enjoy," recounts Iacopo. Both himself and his father Bruno are expert mosaicists who use the Florentine “commesso” technique, unchanged since the 1500s, when it was developed under the Medici family. Even today they use the same tools: the few artisans who have tried to industrialise this technique have closed quickly. Their customers are wealthy: such a demanding and time-consuming craftsmasnhip makes the costs of the items on sale very expensive. For a particularly elaborate one, you can spend up to 500,000 euros. It’s sounds a lot, but for these craftsmen it means years of work.

Read the full interview

Works

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The Libyan Sibyl

This mosaic was modelled after the Libyan Sibyl painted by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel around 1511. Iacopo completed the work after three years during which he devoted his attention to the colour and tone of each stone, to find the exact match to the painting.

Height 98 cm
Width 74 cm

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Florentine commesso

Most of Bruno & Iacopo’s work is done using ancient techniques developed in Medicean times. After carefully selecting stones according to their tone and colours, they manually cut each stone into small pieces. The charm of this research is then translated into the final and is called “Florentine commesso”.

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Ponte Vecchio

The masters of Florentine mosaic use mostly Tuscan, if not Florentine, stones for creating their masterpieces. The use of stones of Tuscan origin is another element explaining the charm emanating from a mosaic created with the authentic Florentine commesso technique.

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Church

Completed by Bruno Lastrucci, this mosaic expresses his long-lasting relationship with the world of classical mosaic and traditional subjects and demonstrates his excellent capacity of understanding the colour embedded in the stone.

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