The Night Forest is a collection of new paintings on board by Denise Allan inspired by 16th and 17th century Italian Pietra Dura.

One blustery day last March, Denise Allan visited Holker Hall (a 16th century country house on the shores of Morecambe Bay) to study the Hall's collection of furniture that incorporates Italian 17th century Pietra Dura panels.

(This example is a Florentine pietra dura cabinet from Bonhams)

Pietra Dura, which translates to 'hard stone' is often described as 'painting in stone'. The technique involves inlaying pieces of polished precious and semi-precious stones, shells and minerals into a background of dark marble to create the illusion of realistic textures, objects and animals.

For this new collection of paintings, Denise retracted the history of pietra dura from ancient Rome to Persia and India and finally to the height of its popularity in 17th century Florence and found at the heart of it, the artist Jacopo Ligozzi (1547-1626). One of the most prolific artists working in Florence in the 1600's, Jacopo Ligozzi was famous as a miniaturist painter of natural objects who also designed for the Florentine pietra dura workshops (see cabinet above). It was here that his designs of birds, flora and fauna were masterfully recreated in stone to achieve that distinctive and dramatic illusory which pietra dura is known for.

These new painted panels by Denise Allan take the medium full circle from stone inlay back to the specimen paintings of Jacopo Ligozzi.

In her signature trompe l'oeil style, using paint instead of stone, Denise Allan manages to paint subjects such as woodland flowers, birds and forest animals with the same luminosity and character as if they too were made of slivers of stone, minerals and mother of pearl.

These strange otherworldly scenes, set against dark backdrops, are set in black panelled frames to reference the cabinets that pietra dura were originally set within.

Exploring similar themes to the 17th century examples, flowers, birds and European animals sit alongside 'exotic' birds and ribbons, all rendered in these intriguing sparse compositions.