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By Tiago Reis, Ra-Ro co-founder · Authors
About 3 min read
What makes the Quadro Poupa so rare?
The Quadro Poupa is an image of the hoopoe bird built entirely in marquetry, meaning it is made from very fine layers of wood fitted together like the pieces of a mosaic. What looks like a painting is, in fact, pure wood. Every tone, every shadow and every nuance of the plumage comes from the natural colour of the material itself, without a single brushstroke of paint.
It is this absence of paint that sets the piece apart. Where a painter would reach for pigments, the master marqueteur chooses the right wood, with the right grain and the right tone, and cuts it to size. The result is a work that reads differently depending on the light, because each layer reflects in its own way.
Who is the master behind the work?
The piece is signed by Jacky Cavallari, trained at the École Boulle in Paris, a global reference for the decorative arts and for marquetry. Cavallari is today one of the few living masters to command this technique at its most demanding level. This is knowledge passed from hand to hand over years of training, and very few people in the world can execute it.
To own one of his works is, therefore, to hold a gesture that risks disappearing. That risk is what drives us: to rescue and share what still endures.
How many sheets bring a single bird to life?
It takes 25 veneer sheets, in natural and dyed woods, to compose the hoopoe. Among the woods used are maple, plane, ebony and black-dyed tulipwood, each chosen for its colour, its sheen and its texture. The palette does not come out of a jar: it comes out of the forest.
- Maple and plane bring the light tones and the luminosity of the feathers.
- Ebony and dyed tulipwood draw the outlines and the deep blacks.
- The remaining sheets fill the full range of browns, golds and greys that give the bird its volume.
How is it made, layer over layer?
This traditional marquetry technique, as practised in the 18th century, rests on a principle that is simple to state and hard to carry out: layer over layer. The master overlays very thin sheets of wood, cuts each shape with precision and adjusts them until the joins vanish from sight. There are no shortcuts and no machines that can replace the eye and the hand.
Each piece calls for patience, geometric rigour and a deep understanding of how each wood behaves. It is slow work, made to last, in which a mistake cannot be corrected with a fresh coat, because the layer is the image itself.
Why does the hoopoe deserve a frame?
The hoopoe is an unmistakable bird, with its crest fanned open and its banded plumage. Translating it into wood is a challenge worthy of the subject: it demands capturing the movement of the feathers and the contrast of the stripes using natural tones alone. When it succeeds, the result is a living piece that seems about to take flight.
We invite you to discover this work up close, along with the story of the gesture that gave rise to it. Explore the Quadro Poupa and let yourself be surprised by all that wood can say.
