1495 - Minerals & Fossils - Ruined Marble (Pietra paesina). Limestone from Alberese, northern Apennines, Italy, Eocene period (34 to 56 million years ago), also known as Florentine marble or landscape marble, cut and polished. Mounted loosely on a black wooden base. Dimensions: approx. 20 x 9 cm. Ruined marble stones were used in Europe from the 15th century onward as inlays for furniture, for mosaics, or even as backgrounds for some oil paintings. It was not until the 19th century that these stones became independent works of art. The highest-quality stones were cut into thin slabs, ground, and polished, allowing them—like this object—to be admired as abstract landscape scenes.

Minerals & Fossils - Ruined Marble (Pietra paesina). Limestone from Alberese, northern Apennines, Italy, Eocene period (34 to 56 million years ago), also known as Florentine marble or landscape marble, cut and polished. Mounted loosely on a black wooden base. Dimensions: approx. 20 x 9 cm. Ruined marble stones were used in Europe from the 15th century onward as inlays for furniture, for mosaics, or even as backgrounds for some oil paintings. It was not until the 19th century that these stones became independent works of art. The highest-quality stones were cut into thin slabs, ground, and polished, allowing them—like this object—to be admired as abstract landscape scenes. A ruin stone (Pietra paesina). Alberese limestone, Northern Apennines, Italy, Eocene–Paleocene, 34 to 56 million years old, also known as Florentine marble or landscape stone, ground and polished. Set loosely on an ebonized wooden base. Dimensions approx. 20 x 9 cm.