If each of you look closely at the photos in this post, you will see that here are not captured paintings, painted with paints and painted furniture. Each item is made of a small mosaic of tiny colored stones. In fact, such works of art can rightly be considered eternal.

The legendary Florentine mosaic dates back to the distant middle ages. The art of the Italian masters at all times aroused admiration both for its paintings and works of applied art. But the way of drawing with small stones deserves special admiration.

The creation of only one square meter of such hard work required sometimes more than one year, and the participation of several masters. Each stone was manually processed and closely adjusted to the main picture, being fixed with a special binder composition. It was impossible to make a mistake in the process of this work. After all, people's faces, for example, were created very similar, like miniature oil paintings, and even the slightest mistake in the work could lead to distortion of the whole picture.

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg presents several works by Italian Florentine masters. Once Russian emperors could afford to pay fabulous money for each such work. A Florentine mosaic table is extremely expensive, because of the complexity of the creative process.

In 2014, I once again visited this beautiful Museum and took several pictures of these mosaics. To tell you the truth, I didn't want to take my eyes off these countertops and panels. They're like a magnet to my attention. I was ready to stand there for hours, considering all the details and elements of stone drawings.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Hermitage, do not miss this opportunity. There are constantly exhibitions of works of art, and the exhibition is constantly changing. The fact is that the huge halls of the Hermitage can simultaneously accommodate only 10 percent of all the stocks and collections of this Museum, the bulk of which is always in special vaults and storerooms. It takes more than one month to carefully inspect and examine each exhibition here. It is wonderful that all this is carefully protected, so that future generations of people can get acquainted and admire the exhibitions of works of world art of different eras.

Photo taken with camera CANON EOS 50D, TAMRON 28-75mm lens

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