The dearly held and richly detailed film Braveheart is iconically represented in the 1995 theatrical film poster. Mel Gibson as William Wallace stands on the battlefield at Falkirk, gazing with fearless resolve in the direction of King Edward-plumes of smoke and fire billowing in the distance.
The Odonata Specimen was conceived to explore the intersection between the emblematic representation of nature in Florentine motifs and the structured presentation of entomology shadow boxes. The dorsal view of the dragonfly adheres to both taxonomic display conventions and the tradition of flat perspectives in insect pietre dure, a technique dating back to the 17th century that dictates a precise approach to stone selection.
Achieving a fluid sense of facial pictorialism at this approximately life-size scale required the seamless blending of stone segments across broad areas while incorporating intricate details, such as those within the eye sockets. Surrounding the left and right eyes, 46 and 49 individual eyelashes are meticulously rendered in black-lipped mother of pearl.
In the early 19th century, Russian craftsmen mastered the art of aligning natural stone patterns to create seamless veneers, a technique known as “Russian mosaic.” This method, renowned for its almost imperceptible joins, was famously used with malachite from the Ural Mountains to adorn the royal courts.