I first focused on decorative marble intarsia pavements in Torcello, in the Venetian Lagoon in 1988. I admired the combination of regularity with almost intuitive placement of colors. I then became aware of the extent of decorated marble pavements in studying the Cosmati- Roman marbleworkers.

This design, called a Quincunx, is a central motif in many designs - especially as practiced by the proto-renaissance marbleworkers (Cosmati) in Rome in the 12th and 13th Centuries. These designs are found throughout central Italy, dating from that time.