Palladio and Vicenza

Vicenza Stone

Artistic and commercial collaboration with numerous "Botteghe artigiane della pietra" (Stone Craft Shops) in Vicenza and the surrounding area has allowed us, since 1930s, to offer a large range of sculptures for decoration of gardens and for furnishing items. Our function has been that of an intermediary between the "Botteghe della Pietra" (Stonework Shops) starting from the well- known Palladio and Scamozzi schools and the needs of expert clients who recognise the high artistic and commercial value of the works we offer.

The sculptures we offer are the expression of a craft culture that has for centuries taken ideas and suggestions from the innumerable works of art in Pietra di Vicenza (Vicenza Stone) which embellish hundreds of Veneto villas built between 1500 and 1800. The products we offer are not mass produced, they are all unique.
None are identical, as they are made individually with ancient techniques, handed down from father to son.

"Pietra di Vicenza" (Vicenza Stone) is a whitish limestone, with a straw-yellow tinge due to minimum traces of clay. "Pietra di Vicenza" (Vicenza Stone) is found in quarries with a small quantity of water. This ensures that the stone retains the minimum degree of hardness, so that it can be easily cut with a wooden saw. When it is removed from its natural environment, it loses its quarry water and harden substantially. "Pietra di Vicenza" (Vicenza Stone) is resistant to atmospheric conditions and polluting substances in the air, and therefore can be used for outdoor works without any problems. Over the past few years requests for works in "Pietra di Vicenza" (Vicenza Stone) have once more become popular and it has also been specifically used to satisfy the growing demand for interior decoration, i.e. fireplaces, balustrade, statues, columns, busts, friezes, bases (capitals) for small and large tables, worktops, etc. Art houses, antique dealers, architects and collectionists are all extremely interested in the craftwork carried out in "Pietra di Vicenza" (Vicenza Stone).

Soft stones like "S. Gottardo" and "San Germano" are quarried in the mining area of the Colli Berici near Vicenza. These fairly well-known stones have been used by innumerable artists and architects throu- gout the centuries. The most famous of all was Palladio (XVI century), who used it extensively in buil- ding his monumental palaces and Veneto Villas.

The Colli Berici hills are composed of Secondary and Tertiary formations. The former is meagerly repre- sented by more recent layers from the cretaceous period, while the latter, especially the Eocene and Oligo- cene formations, are a great deal more extensive. 

Pietra di San Gottardo is a whitish limestone tending to straw- yellow due to minimal traces of clay, at- tributable to the Oligocene Era. This is a pure biospartic limestone, rich in micro- and macro-foraminifers with algae, bryozoan, and echnoid remains distributed in a uniform manner.Its grain is heterogeneous and consists of a fairly fine carbonate matrix incorporating more or less plentiful and coarse fossile remains. When the rock is newly quarried it is slightly water-logged, making it softer and easier to work and thus suitable for sculpturing purposes. With time the stone loses its water, hardening and becoming more resi- stant to decay. Pietra Dorata (or yellow stone) is a biomicrite rich in foraminifers and is heterogenous in its structure and composition. It has a pelitic component in its insoluble residue consisting primarily of montmorillonoids and K-feldspar, from which it takes its yellow pigment. 

San Gottardo   Pietra Gialla (Yellow Stone) San Germano

Pietra Dorata (or yellow stone) is a biomicrite rich in foraminifers and is heterogenous in its structure and composition. It has a pelitic component in its insoluble residue consisting primarily of montmorillonoids and K-feldspar, from which it takes its yellow pigment.

San Gottardo Flowery		San Gottardo Antiquated		San Gottardo Flowery Antiquated