tarsia

plural tarsias

1. countableuncountableIntarsia.

   Andrea del Castagno portrays him, Vasari tells us, among the famous men and women painted in the Casa de' Carducci, and Benedetto da Maiano, he also notes, portrays Dante on a tarsia door in the Palazzo della Signoria.

   1990, Paul Barolsky, Michelangelo's Nose: A Myth and Its Maker, page 96

   2 more examples

   1849, Mary Philadelphia Merrifield, Original Treatises: Dating from the XIIth to XVIIIth Centuries on the Arts of Painting, in Oil, Miniature, Mosaic, and on Glass, republished 1999 [1967], Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting: Original Texts with English Translations, page lviii, Tarsia work was frequently employed in decorating the choirs of churches, as well as the backs of the seats and the wainscotings. It was also used in the panels of doors.

   It only remained for him to teach his method to those who worked in tarsia, which is the craft of inlaying coloured pieces of wood, and he stimulated these artisans so much that they developed excellent procedures and useful techniques from his teaching, for both then and afterwards many excellent works brought fame and profit to Florence for many years.

   1991, Giorgio Vasari, Julia Conaway Bondanella, Peter Bondanella, transl., The Lives of the Artists, page 113