At the end of the sixteenth century, the technical progress in Florentine mosaics reached outstanding goals. Mosaic yearned to become “stone paint”, exploiting the uncountable possibilities of naturally coloured stones and the incredible precision of the artisans in charge of the cutting of the stone slabs.
During that period the court workshop dealt with the portrait genre, ideal for celebratory and symbolic purposes. As an excellent example, here we have a portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici, whose oil model painting was commissioned by Ferdinando I to Domenico Cresti, painter, known as “the Passignano”.
This stone artifact, realized with local marbles as a gift from Tuscany to the first grand duke, was made in 1598 by Francesco Ferrucci with Flanders Touchstone as the background. This stone was considered a symbol of honest judgement, the essential quality of a good prince. The portrait was destined to be put on Cosimo’s tomb in the Chapel of the Princes, but this project was never completed.