Often touted as Marble Emporium, Subhas Emporium is one of the most famous art
galleries in Agra. The gallery houses a good collection of stone handicrafts.
Back in the 60s, Subhash Emporium was the only place to shop for the
traditional stone handicrafts of Agra. And even now, this popular place of
tourist interest serves as an ideal place to shop some stunning masterpieces.
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Subhash Emporium Shop.
Items that are put up on sale at Subhash Emporium are trays, tabletops,
candle holders and lamp bases.
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Besides, the emporium also houses a private gallery where you can
expect to see some stunning artwork of the local artisans.
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Of all those items that are sold here, the models of Taj Mahal are the
most popular ones.
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Cutting and polishing colored stones.
Pietra dura or pietre dure, called parchin kari or
parchinkari in the Indian Subcontinent, is a term for the inlay
technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to
create images. It is considered a decorative art.
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It first appeared in Rome in the 16th century, reaching its full
maturity in Florence.
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Assembling the colored stones.
The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued
stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and
cut in different shape sections; and then assembled together so
precisely that the contact between each section was practically
invisible".
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It is distinct from mosaic in that the component stones are mostly
much larger and cut to a shape suiting their place in the image, not
all of roughly equal size and shape as in mosaic.
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In pietra dura, the stones are not cemented together with
grout, and works in pietra dura are often portable.
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Colored stones.
Many different colored stones, particularly marbles, are used, along
with semiprecious, and even precious stones.
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Resulting panel.
Stability was achieved by grooving the undersides of the stones so that
they interlocked, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, with everything held
tautly in place by an encircling 'frame'.
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Pietra dura items are generally crafted on green, white or
black marble base stones.
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Typically, the resulting panel is completely flat, but some examples
where the image is in low relief were made, taking the work more into
the area of hardstone carving.
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Due to the Taj Mahal being one of the major tourist attractions, there
is a flourishing industry of pietra dura artifacts in Agra.
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See also
Sources
Location
