In this room you can also see pictures made in scagliola, an artistic genre inspired by the Florentine mosaic commesso technique and similar in its visual effects. This technique was particularly in vogue in the eighteenth century to realize tabletops, wall pictures and altar frontals. The scagliola technique makes use of finely ground “scagliola gypsum” to obtain slabs. Once dried, the slabs were engraved according to a design, making hollows a few millimeters deep. Liquid colored gypsum was poured into the hollows and, once dried, the surface was polished with various coats of animal glue, acquiring a marble-like shine. The monk Ignazio Hugford was one of the most important interpreters of this art in Florence. The Opificio holds an important series of his artworks, with small characteristic figures within harmonious landscapes.
