| Pietra dura or pietre dure is an art-historical term for the technique of using exquisitely cut and fitted, highly-polished colored stones to create what amounts to a painting in stone. It is considered a decorative art. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections; and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible". |