Stone materials – Travertines in particular – have been used since antiquity. There are realisations that, thanks to their longevity, have become an integral part of the landscape, whether urban or rural, whether we are talking about monuments or ruins, from the Colosseum that identifies a thousand-year-old city to the Tuscan parish churches that define rural landscapes like the hills themselves.

But we should not think that stone is a material of the past: there are various contemporary processes and interpretations that enhance its aesthetic characteristics and properties. A relevant example of this attitude is the new Sfumato collection, designed by Marco Pisati for Vaselli. It is a cladding that generates complex designs through the use of a few engraved tiles: a smooth tile, a ribbed tile and one that fades from flat to ribbed, from which the collection takes its name; the range is completed by the squared tile, capable of bringing further solutions and more movement to the composition, opening the way to intersections and new directions.

Thanks to its versatility, Sfumato can follow undulating and regular patterns, gently ripple following channels leading to joints or abrupt breaks, giving, with the same material, multiple possibilities of sign and texture, with the same uniform variety as a landscape ploughed for different seeds.

Sfumato adapts to multiple creative needs, material and format, with linear and random solutions. This is how designer Marco Pisati sums up his design intent: "I wanted to make the walls vibrate through a subtle play of light and shadow, the wefts of a fabric warping tapestries of stone." Sfumato is a changing story that fascinates and renews itself through infinite combinations.