building Garacci-Bensa

Towards1855, the painter Charles Garacci erect a two-storey building and it is probably in 1897, during the work of soreness, what is achieved by hissgraffite decoration – a decorative technique dating back to Italian Renaissance, where motifs are engraved in the fresh coating.

This process, both artistic and technical, consists of superimposed two layers of coating: a first, background, covered with a second more contrasting. Before the latter dries, the craftsman scratches the surface to make the lower layer appear, thus creating relief patterns of great depth. The speed of execution, dictated by drying time, in fact a delicate and expensive work, usually reserved for friezes.

Yet, south façade of this building, Registered for Historical Monuments since 1995, distinguished by a monumental sgraffite, exceptional in Nice by sound and its iconographic richness. Today, only the main façade keeps this masterpiece, where to mix mythological characters, fantastic animals and winged puttiin a scholarly and dreamlike composition.

A rare testimony of the decorative art of Niçois, combining Italian heritage and technical virtuosity.