Snow

Leonardo, in his artwork, would like to reproduce the awesome season of winter, it represents the end of the year, the time of hibernation, death and darkness. However, snow also represents Christmas, which is a festive time for many. It symbolizes the joy of the season.

He was inspired by the place he was used to visit when he was a child with his family, Firenzuola. During winter it was used to be covered by the snow that arrived up to more than a meter!

Snow is one of the atmospheric phenomena that has always fascinated human beings. Time slows down, while the white flakes land delicately on the ground, as if to make everything incorruptible. White is typically used to represent innocence and purity, as it is a clean and fresh color, without blemishes. Like falling rain, a quiet snowfall can also evoke a sense of calm, relaxation and quiet. 

Snow is a white space, a synthesis of all the other colours, it is a celebration, in the anthropological meaning of a suspension of time, very far from states of anxiety and frenzy. An invitation to the sense of patience and care, as if to guard something precious, with the delicacy of a mother, while waiting for a probable awakening. Sometimes, however, the snow acts as a definitive sheet, to further reiterate, in a peremptory way, that something is already a heritage of memories, that life and death are in any case two images depicted on a single currency. In all of this, the snow reveals its enormous specific weight, albeit with a lightness that is truly difficult to sustain, made up of flakes, each of which, although inconsistent, tells its own story, and shows us how every moment is truly a value absolute, like an unspeakable gift, not to be squandered, because that moment, that one precise moment, does not allow replies. 

Snow can spark feelings of fun and cheerfulness, as people engage in activities such as building snowmen and having snowball fights. These aspects of snow associate it with fun, frivolity and happiness and can symbolize the childishness that exists in each of us. 

Stones used: White Marble from Carrara, Bardiglio from Tuscany, Gabbro Striato from Castiglioncello (Tuscany).

Year of composition: 2023

Size: cm 35,5x52

Artist: Leonardo Scarpelli 

An original and authentic hand-made artwork created whith the antique technique of Commesso Fiorentino which is unique for Florence.

Commesso Fiorentino was born with Medici family, one of the most important families in Florence, in the second half of 1500.

The research of the stones is made by the mosaicist that must be able to choose from a rich and wide range of shades and veins: for this reason the artists personally search and collect the stones retracing the paths of the Medici researchers.

The processing starts by drawing the subject on adhesive paper, that is then cut into small tamplates that will be attached to the variegated shades of the stones following the visual instinct, the innate gift of the artist and his perfect knowledge of the materials. The shape of the little piece will be cut by hand with a chestnut, cherry or hazelnut wood bow and an iron wire that flows with abrasive powder and water. It creates a very precise and inclined cut to form the essential spaces to accommodate the glue, made by artisans with beeswax and pine tree resin. The different stones are previously glued onto a slate surface which acts as a support during the cutting and filing phase. The various pieces which form the composition are adjusted in shape with diamond files, glued together so that the joints are invisible, flattened and finally polished in order to create a perfect decorative harmony showing the colors of nature in all their radiance.