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Carrara marble

September 01, 2023

Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana, the northernmost tip of modern-day Tuscany, Italy.

View of Carrara; the white on the mountains behind is quarried faces of marble.
Sample sheets, 2016

More marble has been extracted from the over 650 quarry sites near Carrara than from any other place. The pure white statuario grade was used for monumental sculpture, as "it has a high tensile strength, can take a high gloss polish and holds very fine detail".[1] By the late 20th century this had now run out, and the considerable ongoing production is of stone with a greyish tint, or streaks of black or grey on white. This is still attractive as an architectural facing, or for tiles.

History Edit

Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome[2] then called the "Luna marble".

In the Middle Ages, most of the quarries were owned by the Marquis Malaspina who in turn rented them to families of Carrara masters who managed both the extraction and transport of the precious material. Some of them, such as the Maffioli, who rented some quarries north of Carrara, in the Torano area, or, around 1490, Giovanni Pietro Buffa, who bought marble on credit from local quarrymen and then resold it on the Venetian market, were able to create a dense commercial network, exporting the marble even to distant locations.[3] Just to cite an example, starting from 1474, first the Maffioli, then the Buffa, supplied the marble for the facade of the Certosa di Pavia, also taking care of the transport of the material which, by ship, after having circumnavigated Italy, reached the construction site of the monastery after having sailed up the Po and the Ticino by boat.[4] Starting from the 16th century, Genoese stonecutters-merchants also entered this flourishing trade.[5]

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara. The family created the "Office of Marble" in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry.[6] The city of Massa, in particular, saw much of its plan redesigned (new roads, plazas, intersections, pavings) in order to make it worthy of an Italian country's capital.[7] Following the extinction of the Cybo-Malaspina family, the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them. The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the stone.[8]

By the end of the 19th century, Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. According to a New York Times article of 1894, workers in the marble quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy. Many of them were ex-convicts or fugitives from justice. The work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed, regardless of their background.[9]

The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers. Many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy.[9] In Carrara, the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked, “even the stones are anarchists.”[10] The quarry workers were the main actors of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894.

Quarries Edit

 
A Carrara marble quarry

The Apuan Alps above Carrara show evidence of at least 650 quarry sites, with about half of them currently abandoned or worked out.[11] The Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth.[12]

Working the quarries is and has always been dangerous. In September 1911, a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice. A 2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers, and workers performing hazardous, painfully noisy work who are not wearing protective gear of any kind.[13]

The prize yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been statuario, a pure white marble (coloring in other marbles arises from intermixture with other minerals present in the limestone as it is converted to marble by heat or pressure). However, by the end of the 20th century, the known deposits of statuario near Carrara were played out. The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons/year of less-esteemed marble, mostly for export. This is predominantly streaked with black or grey.[1]

Bianco Carrara classified in C and CD variations as well as Bianco Venatino and Statuarietto are by far the most common types with more expensive exotic variations such as Calacatta Gold, Calacatta Borghini, Calacatta Macchia Vecchia, Arabescato Cervaiole and Arabescato Vagli quarried throughout the Carrara area. Bardiglio has more black, and has been used since Roman times for architectural facings and floors.[1]

Notable monuments and buildings Edit

The marble from Carrara was used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome:

It was also used in many sculptures of the Renaissance including Michelangelo's David (1501–1504)[2][14] whilst the statue to Robert Burns, which commands a central position in Dumfries, was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working to Amelia Robertson Hill's model. It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882.[15] Other notable occurrences include:


Carrara marble has been designated by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource.[18]

Use in isotopic standard Edit

Calcite, obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble,[19] is used as the IAEA-603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of δ18O and δ13C.[20]

Gallery Edit

Degradation Edit

The black yeast Micrococcus halobius can colonize Carrara marble by forming a biofilm and producing gluconic, lactic, pyruvic and succinic acids from glucose, as seen in the Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens.[21]

See also Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ a b c Kings
  2. ^ a b Diana E. E. Kleiner. The Ascent of Augustus and Access to Italian Marble (Multimedia presentation). Yale University.
  3. ^ Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane (1969). Les maitres du marbre : Carrare, 1300-1600. Paris: J. Touzot. pp. 129–192. ISBN 9782713204685.
  4. ^ Gemelli, Filippo (2021). "L'approvvigionamento lapideo tra XIV e XV secolo nei cantieri del Duomo e della Certosa di Pavia" (PDF). MARMORA et LAPIDEA (in Italian). 2: 169–183. ISSN 2724-4229.
  5. ^ Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane (1969). Les maitres du marbre : Carrare, 1300-1600. Paris: J. Touzot. p. 192. ISBN 9782713204685.
  6. ^ Goldthwaite 2011, p. 571.
  7. ^ Goldthwaite 2011, p. 573.
  8. ^ Goldthwaite 2011, p. 574.
  9. ^ a b A Stronghold of Anarchists, The New York Times, 19 January 1894
  10. ^ No License to Serve: Prohibition, Anarchists, and the Italian-American Widows of Barre, Vermont, 1900–1920 9 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine, by Robin Hazard Ray, Italian Americana, Spring 2011
  11. ^ Smithsonian, Magical marble, that gleaming rock for the ages (January 1992 issue, pp. 98–107)
  12. ^ "This mine has produced more marble than anywhere on Earth". Wired UK. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  13. ^ [1] Il Capo, directed by Yuri Ancarani, Nowness.com
  14. ^ For Michelangelo, Carrara marble was valued above all other stone, except perhaps that of his own quarry in Pietrasanta.
  15. ^ "National Burns Collection – Burns Statue, Dumfries with Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnnie statues "on tour", c. 1900". Burnsscotland.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
  16. ^ "The Queen Victoria Memorial". The Royal Parks. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  17. ^ "Resilience, Reflected in Marble". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  18. ^ "Designation of GHSR". IUGS Subcommission: Heritage Stones. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  19. ^ Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA Environment Laboratories (16 July 2016). "Reference Sheet: Certified Reference Material : IAEA-603 (calcite) — Stable Isotope Reference Material for δ13C and δ18O" (PDF). IAEA. p. 2. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  20. ^ "IAEA-603 , Calcite". Reference Products for Environment and Trade. International Atomic Energy Agency. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  21. ^ Henry Lutz Ehrlich; Dianne K Newman (2009). Geomicrobiology (5 ed.). p. 180. ISBN 9780849379079.

References Edit

  • Goldthwaite, Richard A. (2011). The Economy of Renaissance Florence. JHU Press. ISBN 978-0801889820.
  • "Kings":The Art of Making in Antiquity: Stoneworking in the Roman World, King's College, London, "Material, Luna Marble"

Further reading Edit

  • Newman, Cathy (July 1982). "Carrara Marble: Touchstone of Eternity". National Geographic. Vol. 162, no. 1. pp. 42–59. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454.

External links Edit

  •   Media related to Marble quarry, Carrara at Wikimedia Commons
  • Official Website Calacatta Marble

September 01, 2023
carrara, marble, luna, marble, romans, type, white, blue, grey, marble, popular, sculpture, building, decor, been, quarried, since, roman, times, mountains, just, outside, city, carrara, province, massa, carrara, lunigiana, northernmost, modern, tuscany, italy. Carrara marble Luna marble to the Romans is a type of white or blue grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa and Carrara in the Lunigiana the northernmost tip of modern day Tuscany Italy View of Carrara the white on the mountains behind is quarried faces of marble Sample sheets 2016More marble has been extracted from the over 650 quarry sites near Carrara than from any other place The pure white statuario grade was used for monumental sculpture as it has a high tensile strength can take a high gloss polish and holds very fine detail 1 By the late 20th century this had now run out and the considerable ongoing production is of stone with a greyish tint or streaks of black or grey on white This is still attractive as an architectural facing or for tiles Contents 1 History 2 Quarries 3 Notable monuments and buildings 4 Use in isotopic standard 5 Gallery 6 Degradation 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External linksHistory EditCarrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome 2 then called the Luna marble In the Middle Ages most of the quarries were owned by the Marquis Malaspina who in turn rented them to families of Carrara masters who managed both the extraction and transport of the precious material Some of them such as the Maffioli who rented some quarries north of Carrara in the Torano area or around 1490 Giovanni Pietro Buffa who bought marble on credit from local quarrymen and then resold it on the Venetian market were able to create a dense commercial network exporting the marble even to distant locations 3 Just to cite an example starting from 1474 first the Maffioli then the Buffa supplied the marble for the facade of the Certosa di Pavia also taking care of the transport of the material which by ship after having circumnavigated Italy reached the construction site of the monastery after having sailed up the Po and the Ticino by boat 4 Starting from the 16th century Genoese stonecutters merchants also entered this flourishing trade 5 In the 17th and 18th centuries the marble quarries were monitored by the Cybo and Malaspina families who ruled over Massa and Carrara The family created the Office of Marble in 1564 to regulate the marble mining industry 6 The city of Massa in particular saw much of its plan redesigned new roads plazas intersections pavings in order to make it worthy of an Italian country s capital 7 Following the extinction of the Cybo Malaspina family the state was ruled by the House of Austria and management of the mines rested with them The Basilica of Massa is built entirely of Carrara marble and the old Ducal Palace of Massa was used to showcase the stone 8 By the end of the 19th century Carrara had become a cradle of anarchism in Italy in particular among the quarry workers According to a New York Times article of 1894 workers in the marble quarries were among the most neglected labourers in Italy Many of them were ex convicts or fugitives from justice The work at the quarries was so tough and arduous that almost any aspirant worker with sufficient muscle and endurance was employed regardless of their background 9 The quarry workers and stone carvers had radical beliefs that set them apart from others Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers Many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy 9 In Carrara the anarchist Galileo Palla remarked even the stones are anarchists 10 The quarry workers were the main actors of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894 Quarries Edit nbsp A Carrara marble quarryThe Apuan Alps above Carrara show evidence of at least 650 quarry sites with about half of them currently abandoned or worked out 11 The Carrara quarries have produced more marble than any other place on earth 12 Working the quarries is and has always been dangerous In September 1911 a collapsing cliff face at the Bettogli Quarry crushed 10 workers who were on lunch break under a precipice A 2014 video made at a Carrara quarry shows workers with missing fingers and workers performing hazardous painfully noisy work who are not wearing protective gear of any kind 13 The prize yield from Carrara quarries through millennia has been statuario a pure white marble coloring in other marbles arises from intermixture with other minerals present in the limestone as it is converted to marble by heat or pressure However by the end of the 20th century the known deposits of statuario near Carrara were played out The quarries continue to remove and ship up to a million tons year of less esteemed marble mostly for export This is predominantly streaked with black or grey 1 Bianco Carrara classified in C and CD variations as well as Bianco Venatino and Statuarietto are by far the most common types with more expensive exotic variations such as Calacatta Gold Calacatta Borghini Calacatta Macchia Vecchia Arabescato Cervaiole and Arabescato Vagli quarried throughout the Carrara area Bardiglio has more black and has been used since Roman times for architectural facings and floors 1 Notable monuments and buildings EditThe marble from Carrara was used for some of the most remarkable buildings in Ancient Rome Temple of Proserpina later reused in many buildings in Valletta The Pantheon Trajan s Column Column of Marcus AureliusIt was also used in many sculptures of the Renaissance including Michelangelo s David 1501 1504 2 14 whilst the statue to Robert Burns which commands a central position in Dumfries was carved in Carrara by Italian craftsmen working to Amelia Robertson Hill s model It was unveiled by future UK Prime Minister Archibald Primrose 5th Earl of Rosebery on 6 April 1882 15 Other notable occurrences include Marble Arch London Victoria Memorial London 16 Some sections of the Palace of the Marques de Dos Aguas Valencia Spain Prem Mandir Vrindavan Uttar Pradesh India Duomo di Siena Siena Italy Sarcophagus of St Hedwig Queen of Poland Cracow Poland Manila Cathedral interior Manila Philippines First Canadian Place Toronto Ontario Canada Sheikh Zayed Mosque Abu Dhabi UAE Harvard Medical School buildings Boston Massachusetts US Oslo Opera House Oslo Norway Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial Crosses and Stars of David Normandy France Peace Monument Washington DC US King Edward VII Memorial Birmingham UK Akshardham Delhi India Aon Center Chicago Chicago Illinois US Milwaukee Art Museum Milwaukee Wisconsin US Robba Fountain Ljubljana Slovenia Finlandia Hall Helsinki Finland Devon Tower Oklahoma City Oklahoma US The Rotunda University of Virginia Charlottesville Virginia US Far Eastern University Manila Philippines Administration Building The Rome Italy Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Glasgow City Chambers Scotland General Grant National Memorial Tomb New York New York US Winter Garden Atrium World Financial Center New York New York US 17 Saadian Tombs Marrakesh MoroccoCarrara marble has been designated by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource 18 Use in isotopic standard EditCalcite obtained from an 80 kg sample of Carrara marble 19 is used as the IAEA 603 isotopic standard in mass spectrometry for the calibration of d18O and d13C 20 Gallery Edit nbsp Michelangelo s Pieta St Peter s Basilica Vatican City nbsp Replica of the Robba Fountain at Town Square Ljubljana The sculptural part of the fountain is made of Carrara marble the obelisk of local Lesno Brdo limestone and the pool of local Podpec limestone nbsp Jadwiga of Poland s sarcophagus by Antoni Madeyski in Wawel Cathedral Cracow nbsp Heros de Lumiere by Igor Mitoraj As of 2004 displayed at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park nbsp Interior of the Main Prayer Hall in Sheikh Zayed Mosque Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates nbsp Parisian chimneypiece c 1775 1785 Carrara marble with gilt bronze height 111 4 cm width 169 5 cm depth 41 9 cm nbsp The Cloak of Conscience Pieta or Commendatore by Anna Chromy located in Cathedral in Salzburg Austria Stavovske divadlo in Prague National Archeological Museum in Athens and elsewhere nbsp Tomb of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and his wife Teresa Cristina by Jean Magrou gisant and Hildegardo Leao Veloso reliefs in the Cathedral of Sao Pedro de Alcantara in Petropolis Brazil nbsp The George Washington statue on display at the National Museum of American History nbsp The Hill of Hope monument in Onomichi Hiroshima is landscaped with five thousand square metres of Carrara marble nbsp Staircase Glasgow City Chambers nbsp Birmingham s King Edward VII Memorial was carved from a large piece of Carrara marble nbsp Adelaide s first street statue Venere di Canova a copy of Venus Italica was carved from Carrara marble Degradation EditThe black yeast Micrococcus halobius can colonize Carrara marble by forming a biofilm and producing gluconic lactic pyruvic and succinic acids from glucose as seen in the Dionysos Theater of the Acropolis in Athens 21 See also EditNo Cav List of types of marble Lizza di Piastreta Marmifera di Carrara railway Lardo a culinary specialty of the Carrara region commonly cured in basins made of Carrara marbleNotes Edit a b c Kings a b Diana E E Kleiner The Ascent of Augustus and Access to Italian Marble Multimedia presentation Yale University Klapisch Zuber Christiane 1969 Les maitres du marbre Carrare 1300 1600 Paris J Touzot pp 129 192 ISBN 9782713204685 Gemelli Filippo 2021 L approvvigionamento lapideo tra XIV e XV secolo nei cantieri del Duomo e della Certosa di Pavia PDF MARMORA et LAPIDEA in Italian 2 169 183 ISSN 2724 4229 Klapisch Zuber Christiane 1969 Les maitres du marbre Carrare 1300 1600 Paris J Touzot p 192 ISBN 9782713204685 Goldthwaite 2011 p 571 Goldthwaite 2011 p 573 Goldthwaite 2011 p 574 a b A Stronghold of Anarchists The New York Times 19 January 1894 No License to Serve Prohibition Anarchists and the Italian American Widows of Barre Vermont 1900 1920 Archived 9 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine by Robin Hazard Ray Italian Americana Spring 2011 Smithsonian Magical marble that gleaming rock for the ages January 1992 issue pp 98 107 This mine has produced more marble than anywhere on Earth Wired UK 12 October 2017 Retrieved 6 March 2022 1 Il Capo directed by Yuri Ancarani Nowness com For Michelangelo Carrara marble was valued above all other stone except perhaps that of his own quarry in Pietrasanta National Burns Collection Burns Statue Dumfries with Tam O Shanter and Souter Johnnie statues on tour c 1900 Burnsscotland com Archived from the original on 31 July 2012 Retrieved 5 May 2009 The Queen Victoria Memorial The Royal Parks Retrieved 27 February 2019 Resilience Reflected in Marble The New York Times Retrieved 16 March 2021 Designation of GHSR IUGS Subcommission Heritage Stones Retrieved 24 February 2019 Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications IAEA Environment Laboratories 16 July 2016 Reference Sheet Certified Reference Material IAEA 603 calcite Stable Isotope Reference Material for d13C and d18O PDF IAEA p 2 Retrieved 28 February 2017 IAEA 603 Calcite Reference Products for Environment and Trade International Atomic Energy Agency Retrieved 27 February 2017 Henry Lutz Ehrlich Dianne K Newman 2009 Geomicrobiology 5 ed p 180 ISBN 9780849379079 References EditGoldthwaite Richard A 2011 The Economy of Renaissance Florence JHU Press ISBN 978 0801889820 Kings The Art of Making in Antiquity Stoneworking in the Roman World King s College London Material Luna Marble Further reading EditNewman Cathy July 1982 Carrara Marble Touchstone of Eternity National Geographic Vol 162 no 1 pp 42 59 ISSN 0027 9358 OCLC 643483454 External links Edit nbsp Media related to Marble quarry Carrara at Wikimedia Commons Official Website Calacatta Marble Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Carrara marble amp oldid 1166608708, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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