Lithic Landscape

(This image depicting Abraham sacrificing Isaac is but one of the finer examples of pietre dure appearing in a new exhibition at the Met devoted to this hyper-form of mosaic. It also accompanies a recent New York Times article. In a marvelous synergy between material and subject, the pieces of stones — baked deep in the grinding innards of the earth — give this overwrought scene of infanticide an “explosive energy bordering on animation.” See also: Pictorial Stones.)