Italian School, 17th/18th century 

The Mocking of Christ

Oil on slate

9 inches (diameter)

11 by 11 inches (framed) 

Ex: Newman Galleries, Philadelphia (by repute) 

A recent exhibit in St. Louis on painting on stone noted, "Sebastiano del Piombo has often been credited as the inventor of the technique for painting on stone. A letter from the time recounted how he found a way to unite paint with stone, producing images that were “a little less than eternal.” In the aftermath of the 1527 Sack of Rome, the idea of a preternaturally durable painting had a powerful appeal.

But stone had important aesthetic qualities, too. At first, artists confined themselves mostly to slabs of slate. Its smooth, oily blackness allowed them to play with dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, taking chiaroscuro to its ultimate heights. Witness the lightless velvet void that surrounds the figures in a slate painting of the Virgin and Child by Alessandro Turchi. Slate had a metaphorical resonance as well: It resembled the touchstones used for assessing the authenticity of precious metals. Rubbed against a touchstone, real gold could be distinguished from false by the streak it left behind. In the same way, an artist’s skill gleamed on the black stone like true gold."